In my e-mail box:
- Truthout will issue a statement on the Rove story today at 5:00 p.m. Pacific. The post will appear on our blog at: http://forum.truthout.org/blog.
Will it be:
It’s 7:17 PM EDT as I type this; that’s 4:17 PM PDT. I can hardly wait! 
_______________
I think it’s called “live blogging” when you are continually updating a single story as it happens.
I went to the truthout blog a bit earlier than 8:00 PM, and found this story, Regarding Mr. Luskin’s Statements, by Marc Ash, posted yesterday at 02:44:19 PM EDT.
-
We are stunned by the magnitude of the reaction to the article we published yesterday morning. We have put our cards on the table. We invite Mr. Luskin to do the same.
To clarify: The entire basis for the information that “Rove has been cleared” comes from a verbal statement by Karl Rove’s attorney. No one else confirms that. As Karl Rove’s attorney Robert Luskin is bound to act – in all regards – in Rove’s best interest. We question his motives.
You’ve just got to read the comments; while some of the Truthout readers have accepted the fact that Mr Leoplod‘s story was just flat wrong, the holdouts are still there, questioning the story since it came from Mr Rove’s attorney — as though, if he lied, such a lie would not have been almost immediately exposed.
Live blogged @ 7:45 PM EDT
_______________
It’s 7:56 PM, and their statement still hasn’t appeared; I guess that they aren’t late — yet!
_______________
7:58 — Hot damn, they were two minutes early!
-
Standing Down on the Rove Matter
By Marc Ash,
Wed Jun 14th, 2006 at 06:52:40 PM EDT :: Fitzgerald Investigation
Yesterday, most Mainstream Media organizations published reports about a letter supposedly received by Karl Rove’s attorney Robert Luskin. As an example of the supposed letter’s contents, TIME Magazine stated that, “Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said or wrote, ‘Absent any unexpected developments, he does not anticipate seeking any criminal charges against Rove.’”
Truthout of course published an article on May 13 which reported that Karl Rove had in fact already been indicted. Obviously there is a major contradiction between our version of the story and what was reported yesterday. As such, we are going to stand down on the Rove matter at this time. We defer instead to the nation’s leading publications.
In that Mr. Luskin has chosen the commercial press as his oracle Рand they have accepted Рwe call upon those publications to make known the contents of the communiqu̩ which Luskin holds at the center of his assertions. Quoting only those snippets that Mr. Luskin chooses to characterize in his statements is not enough. If Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has chosen to exonerate Mr. Rove, let his words Рin their entirety Рbe made public.
Reporter Jason Leopold
Mr. Leopold did not act alone in his reporting of this matter. His work, sources and conclusions were reviewed carefully at each step of the process. There is no indication that Mr. Leopold acted unethically.
Please keep in mind that over the years we have reported on many examples of individuals being scapegoated in crisis situations by superiors seeking cover from controversy. Truthout, however, does not do scapegoats. And we stand firmly behind Jason Leopold.
The Confidentiality of Our Sources
As journalists, nothing is more critical to being able to report guarded facts than the guarantee of confidentiality we provide to our sources. Truthout has never compromised the identy of a confidential source. We will protect our sources on this story, as we have on every other story we have ever published.
Expect a more comprehensive accounting of this matter on Monday, June 19.
Marc Ash
Executive Director – Truthout
director@truthout.org
What a bunch of bovine feces! They “stand firmly behind Jason Leopold.” Trouble is, despite Mr Ash’s assurances that Mr. Leopold’s “work, sources and conclusions were reviewed carefully at each step of the process,” and “There is no indication that Mr. Leopold acted unethically,” there is also no indication that he wrote truthfully.
Mr. Ash is clinging to the fact that the actual letter was not released, but anyone with any common sense would know better than to pin a claim on that; letters to attorneys are confidential matters, and Robert Luskin knows full well that trying to sell a false claim on something like this would be exposed within days — if it were false. He could only do his client more harm if he lied about this, and might well be subject to Bar Association discipline.
Of course, they’ll have more on this on Monday — after they figure out how to spin it better.
I can’t wait until the tinfoil hat commenters add their say!
Their “dreams” are shattered Dana. And so is a big part of their credibility, which will be harder to swallow than Rove not being indited.
Where’s the beef Mr. Leopold? A journalist admits his/her mistakes asap
to preserve what credibility they have left. Mr Ash may want to think about this. But Truthout is just a mini Rathergate.
Nahhh, Rov, you missed it: while a real journalist would admit his mistakes, Truthout does not house real journalists. Even some of the liberal sites have questioned upholding Mr Leopold as a serious journalist.
I’m waiting now for a story that Karl Rove himself, knowing that there would be no indictment, had the story planted in Truthout, just to discredit them!
I spent about an hour last night reading comments to this story at “truth-out-of-lies”. They might as well be a Kos-DU wanna-bees. Even liberals were calling for Ash to do a formal retraction and stop “lapdancing” this issue, and even they were attacked as trolls. One lady (on the site) kept asking “who are you?”, we don’t know you”. “Go Away”, like this site was her own private world where debate is not allowed.
Please keep us updated on developments Dana.
Thanks, Rov
Unfortunately, comments on truthout are not individually linked, so if you want to verify this one, you’ll have to go to the main story and page down to find it:
The truthout denizens who are living in denial seem to have three basic ideas:
1- Karl Rove was not indicted in exchange for his testimony against Lewis Libby;
2- Karl Rove was not indicted because there are bigger charges coming up against him; or
3- Karl Rove was not indicted because President Bush squashed it.
The first idea is silly; it assumes that Patrick Fitzgerald was letting a bigger fish get away to better make his case against a smaller fish. That ain’t how prosecutors work, people!
The second is simply wishful thinking. To them, Mr Rove is just plain evil, therefore he must have done something criminal, and sooner or later (later, it would now seem) they’ll get the goods on him.
The third assumes that the President could squash a special prosecutor’s function. If that was true, it should have and would have been done before Mr Libby was indicted!
The denizens of truthout are in the process of proving themselves to be just as wacko as those of The Lost Kos. Markos Moulitsas Zùniga has, as I wrote about previously, trying to prove himself to be a serious liberal power broker, through his “netroots,” even though he shows up for imporant meetings with serious presidential candidates dressed like a street punk.
If they have that weak a grasp on reality, I suspect they might not be quite the force they think they will be this November.
It’s just amazing how, (when you engage in serious conversation) these people eventually git around to the heart of their passion, which is how much they hate our president. No logic or reasoning. Just pure unaldulterated hatred. Now I must admit that the eight years of Slick Willy may have been the worst I had to put up with in my adult life, (Carter a close second), but I still had a respect for the office, and they were my Presidents. Todays nutcases on the left have no respect for either and that is why they continue to dissolve as a “party of no return”. NO PLAN, NO AGENDA, NO BACKBONE,……just f**k Bush. Shameful.
[...] But while the Usual Suspects will probably be smiling about this story, it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t do much touching of the story; they feel burned by the original last May. As of this posting, left-wing sources such as the Lost Kos, MyDD and the even further, whacko left My Left Wing have not yet commented on it; I guess that they’re going to treat this one with kid gloves — or asbestos gloves — after being burned last time. I certainly laughed about it then! [...]
[...] But while the Usual Suspects will probably be smiling about this story, it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t do much touching of the story; they feel burned by the original last May. As of this posting, left-wing sources such as the Lost Kos, MyDD and the even further, whacko left My Left Wing have not yet commented on it; I guess that they’re going to treat this one with kid gloves — or asbestos gloves — after being burned last time. I certainly laughed about it then! [...]