1115.org

The beauty of blogs, of course, is that anyone with one can use their space however they please. I’ve read a few in my time, and the depth and breadth of opinions and topics is beyond belief. That said, it’s almost impossible to ignore detractors who complain that blogs are sloppy and unfocused. The final stages of the investigation into who leaked the name of C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame provided an opportunity to showcase the collaborative reporting and information distribution prowess of blogs; instead it turned into a myopic circle-jerk that prevented left-leaning political blogs from having any impact whatsoever.

As I’ve mentioned previously, too many people treated the investigation by independent counsel Patrick Fitzgerald as if it was Kenneth Starr’s probe of all things Bill Clinton. But where Starr’s witch-hunt leaked like the sewer that it was, Fitzgerald managed to run a leak-free shop. The vacuum created by the lack of official statements turned many bloggers into the modern-day equivalent of Kremlin Watchers: outside observers operating on propaganda and rumor in the absence of fact, getting it (much) more wrong than right. A bit of leadership from Democratic officials and major bloggers, and a willingness on the part of some to forsake being “Scuttlebutt Central” could have changed that, turning a washout into a workable narrative. I’m certainly not suggesting that everyone has to be on message all the time; after all, we all have different goals and preferences. But I wonder how it feels to browse your own archives and see nothing but ignorant guesses and unfulfilled predictions for weeks (and in some cases months) on end.

It didn’t help that many bloggers trivialized the matter by enthusiastically parroting the catch-phrase “Fitzmas“, which further reduced their nascent credibility. Sure, there were some bloggers who got small details right. Legal experts who explained grand jury rules and consequences and media observers who documented timelines and contradictions added value to the debate as much as any reporter did. But for each instance of actual knowledge came innumerable posts repeating or creating straight gossip disguised as insight. Anyone who paid attention remembers rumors of 22 indictments, targets flipping on each other, unindicted co-conspirators named Bush and Cheney, and any number of “today’s the day” announcements. In the chase to sew bits of attorney spin, internet innuendo and pure wishful thinking into a grand unifying theory, too many bloggers got lost in the forest, examining rocks for moss when they should have been explaining what types of trees they saw.

The reason the Plame leak case drew attention in the first place was its roots in the lies shrouding the Iraq war. The forged documents that sent Plame’s husband Joe Wilson to Niger were whitewashed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, but Fitzgerald’s investigation provided a second crack at exposing the fraud. Because the focus was on a C.I.A. agent (spies are sexy) and the result of the inquiry could have reached the Oval Office (the guy behind the desk, not the ones who tell him how smart he is), the media made an exception to their normal practice of ignoring complicated stories. As readers of Peter Daou’s Triangle Theory know, media attention is one of three crucial elements in moving a story into the national consciousness, and for once, they did their job. The other two elements (Democratic leadership and bloggers) were not quite as successful.

By getting mesmerized by the minute details and caught up in the self-congratulatory backslapping, bloggers missed the opportunity to draw parallels between this case and nearly everything else this administration has done (media manipulation, lies, scare tactics, vindictiveness, delays) since they have been in office. Polls show that Americans have heard of the Plame case, and a majority considers it serious, but one would be hard pressed to find many people (normal people, not bloggers) who fully understand it. There’s nothing wrong with that; knowing every detail isn’t nearly as important as knowing that, based on this case and others like it, the Bush administration will go to any length to get what they want no matter the effect on this country. Until today (more on that in a minute) the Democratic leadership hadn’t done their part either. They operated under what amounted to a self-imposed gag order until the Scooter Libby indictment was announced, and even after could only manage pathetic calls for Karl Rove’s resignation or firing, mimicking their standard calls for apology whenever a Republican says something offensive. Bloggers and their party leaders didn’t get it together, thus a weekend and Supreme Court nomination later, Libby, Rove, et al were off the front page.

That is until Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid closed the Senate with a parliamentary action and demanded the Senate Intelligence Committee continue their look into finding out why nearly every assumption leading up to the Iraq war was dead wrong. Reid’s gambit was bold, and probably what a lot of Americans of both parties were craving, but its effectiveness is limited by the lack of foundation underneath it and preparation behind it. Had left-leaning blogs kept pressure on the media to cover the big picture and ramifications of which the leak was part, and D.C. Dems made statements of the same tenor, the ball would be much farther down the field. E. J. Dionne’s column discussing how Libby’s perjury and obstruction lengthened Fitzgerald’s investigation past the 2004 elections is an example of a line of attack that can transcend political junkies and change voters’ minds about their leaders. Rumors that Fitzgerald was renting new office space or that the whole West Wing would be on a chain gang don’t. As the blog community matures, its members need to look in the mirror and decide whether their egos and traffic are more important than promoting the cause. If it’s the former, their posts aren’t “BREAKING”… they’re broken.