Abstract

Novak's No Patriot (or Journalist)

The author calls upon journalist Robert Novak to reveal his source for a story that blew the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plane. Journalists are understandably loath to call on a colleague to give up a source who's been promised anonymity, as the credibility of the entire profession can suffer from such a public betrayal. The point is not the principle per se; it is the principle's pragmatic value in the daily exchange of information between journalist and source. In most cases the decision to stick to this rule is--from the standpoint of self-interest at least--a no-brainer. Only when the interests of national safety or simple morality are so compelling as to be overwhelming would any professional journalist consider calling on a colleague to weaken this guarantee. Enter Robert Novak. The conservative pundit knowingly blew CIA agent Valerie Plame's cover, and possibly aided and abetted the commission of a felony by a White House official who leaked him the information. Novak's action served no patriotic purpose. Novak was one of six journalists contacted by the White House in an attempt to weaken the credibility of Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, and punish his act of dissent, but Novak was the only patsy who took the bait. Almost no one in the press wants to see Novak legally compelled to name his source, but a number of journalists have called on Novak to less up on his own. Novak, we may note, has in fact revealed the name of an anonymous source once before-that of Russian spy Robert Hanssen. In other words, he is less a real "reporter" than a committed right-wing hack who plays one on TV.