11/21/2007

In Brief: What Did CNN's John Roberts Know About Scott McClellan's Misinformation and When Did He Know It?:
This morning on CNN's American Morning Sans Soledad, host John Roberts was talking to Slate's John Dickerson about Scott "I Just Realized I Have an Immortal Soul" McClellan's revelation that he discovered he was lied to about the involvement of Scooter Libby and Karl Rove in the leaking of Valerie Plame Wilson's identity to the press.

Here's what Roberts, who was a White House correspondent at the time, said: "Boy, I'll tell you though, it's surprising you know. I knew that he was upset because they set to his office and talked to him about it. About told to go out there and do that. I didn't realize he was this upset about it."

Believe what you will about how truthful Scott "You Should Have Paid Me Off Better, George and Dick" McClellan is being about his own innocent involvement. But what exactly is Roberts saying? That he knew McClellan knew he had deliberately been fed misinformation? And why didn't Roberts report on that at the time? Doesn't what Roberts says undermine McClellan's protestations of ignorance in telling the press that Rove and Libby were not involved?

The bigger questions are: How complicit is the media in Rove's exoneration? In stifling investigation?