A "News" search for "McClellan" anywhere in any article on both Google and Yahoo produced similar totals but a different frequency for web hits. The meta-search engine called "Dogpile" was used as a basis to determine the actual number of unduplicated stories.
How astounding that these searches produced so few hits. Didn't the press secretary just accuse Bush, Cheney, Card, Rove, and Libby of collective action to conceal the truth, i.e., a conspiracy? Didn't the concealed truth concern a major intelligence operation designed to keep us from getting nuked? If this doesn't rate intensive coverage and comment, what does?
Google and Yahoo searches by media type. "Dogpile" is a meta search
service that provides unduplicated results. It is closest to a true total for stories.
. News sites on the web had the most consistent reporting and commentary on this story. The Huffington Post had at least eight articles. BuzzFlash, OpEdNews, and CLG also made their presence known. The ideologically androgynous Slate was cautious, however. John Dickerson parsed McClellan's words too tightly in "The Press Dog that Didn't Bark." He said, "Scott McClellan has offered no bombshells – yet." What would count as bombshell? Maybe McClellan needed audio or video tapes to satisfy Slate. Of all the stories, mainstream or alternative, the Associated Press was right on target with "Former press secretary accuses Bush, Cheney of deceiving public about CIA leak case."
The story of the McClellan bombshell is that there is no story being told by the mainstream media. Here's a partial explanation. Jack McElroy, editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel, shared his response to a reader inquiry. The reader wanted to know why the paper wasn't covering McClellan's revelation. McElroy quoted his response in an editorial entitled "Did We Bury a Bush Expose?"
A local newspaper can rarely provide national information that interested readers have not already received from other sources. The news you mention was widely disseminated by the national media. In fact, your complaint is not that you did not receive the information, but rather that we did not use enough of our space to reiterate the information you received elsewhere. Knoxville News Sentinel Nov. 21, 2007
Had editor McElroy used the meta search service Dogpile, he would have seen this 1 - 20 of 30 from All Search Engines. Dogpile uses Google, Yahoo, and other major search engines to produce comprehensive unduplicated results – 30 primary sources, period. McElroy was wrong. The story was not "widely disseminated by the national media." It was barely covered. With editor McElroy's inaccurate statement about national coverage and the indifference of his paper to a huge story, it's no wonder citizens distrust the press.
Shouldn't Protecting Against This Generate a More than a Few Headlines?
Valerie Plame's mission was to track the illegal market in nuclear weapons. The goal was to prevent the use of any of those weapons against the people of the United States. The mission was disrupted when Plame's true role as a CIA NOC agent was revealed. The leak came from the White House. Then, when fingers were pointed at Rove and Libby, the president and vice president swung into action. They told their press secretary to lie to the press and the people. By McClellan's account, they conspired with the group to deceive the public and perhaps the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald.
Failure to grasp its meaning of this story requires an exceptional act of will.
We expect much more out of those charged with protecting the nation and its citizens? Isn't the mainstream media, the so called "fourth estate," a self anointed protector of the public well being? We've been told that this is done by vigorous coverage and investigation of major stories involving presidential cover-ups; particularly those dealing with critical national security threats.
But here's what we got. The supposed "paper of record," The New York Times was the first, or one of the first, news organizations to break the story on Tuesday at 1:29 p.m.
The internet news sites battled back and forth with some on the left taking the lead in exposing the gravity of this accusation. But where is the New York Times?
Is this story simply going to die like so many others that show the outright danger posed to the people by their so called leaders? Democratic presidential candidates have jumped on this revelation. Will leaders in the House and Senate hold hearings to determine the accuracy of McClellan's devastating revelation? If hearings happen at all, will they lead to a Bush - Cheney impeachment in the House and a trial in the Senate?
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