Outed CIA covert operative Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, Joe Wilson, gave an interview to Katie Couric on 60 Minutes. In the first segment, Plame Wilson spoke frankly about being betrayed by this administration, as well as her assessment of the damage done to the nation’s security by revealing her identity:
Part One: 
Download | Play 
Download | Play (thanks to BillW for videos)
But the second segment is where Couric goes off the rails and shows her flair for White House talking points. It’s almost as if she implies that Plame Wilson should have expected the White House to out her because the work she did touched on the question that sent her husband, Amb. Joseph Wilson, to Niger.
COURIC: You never for a moment thought this could potentially jeopardize my career?
PLAME: It’s called ‘living your cover.’ This had nothing to do with what I was doing. He was part of the debate.
COURIC: But admit it, it comes awfully close to what you were doing, even covertly. I mean, you were trying to ascertain if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He’s writing an article saying ‘it’s really not valid, this one assertion.’ I mean, can’t you see how those two things might collide and in a very dangerous way?
Part Two: Download | Play Download | Play
Couric should be embarassed for her arsenal of GOP talking points disguised as an interview. Seriously, this is a covert agent telling you that national security was compromised and you think this is the kind of question that needed to be asked?
Can you understand how people just were turned off by that whole thing? They felt “Gee, maybe she’s enjoying her celebrity a little too much.”
She even at one point accused Valerie of being very partisan and Joseph Wilson of still seething… can you believe that hackery? Did it ever cross her mind to ask that of President Bush in her softball interview from Iraq? Of course not.
To the end, the Wilsons held strong to the truth and never backed down, even when the CIA made it difficult for her to publish her own book on the events, Fair Game, eventually redacting 10% of it.
Couric: “Do you think President Bush was in on this?”
Plame: “I don’t know about that, but I, like most other Americans saw President Bush say on TV that he would fire anyone from his administration found to be involved in the leak of my name. It turns out, the president is not a man of his word.”
Filed Under: CBS, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Plame Case/Pat Fitzgerald, Scandals, Smears, White House
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First!
Couric’s a lightweight who should have stayed with puff pieces on “Today.” And Bush is the biggest liar the White House has ever seen. He and Cheney should be impeached NOW.
Just finished watching the interview on the TiVo. Katie started out pretty well, but when she started talking about Plame’s job getting too close to Wilson’s article, that was it!
I bet if given the chance, Katie would still argue that Plame was not covert.
As for Plame enjoying her celebrity a little too much, that would only be true if she got a nose and boob job and posed for Playboy, like our friend Paula Jones.
Lynne Cheney and Clarence Thomas got the usual soft-focus, adoring profiles Republicans get from CBS - the bigger the monster, the more adoring the gaze - but that vile pig Couric pounced on Valerie Wilson as though she were running dogfights out of the CIA. I admire Wilson more than ever; I despise Couric even more.
If her book is as boring as her interview, well…..
One good thing: Couric is going down. Nobody will be watching her and CBS is going to be forced to give her the boot. For a while I felt sorry for her, when she was being held to standards not criticized in the work of others. But she has gone out of the way to abandon even a modicum of integrity.
Republican Playbook
Responding to Critics
1. Accuse him/her/them of being “politically motivated.”
2. Accuse him/her/them of some ulterior motive such as promoting a new book.
3. Accuse him/her/them of not being credible.
4. Make false statements about him/her/them that tend to diminish reputations.
I watched this on 60 min tonight. The Wilsons handled themselves very well, and at times put Couric in her place.
On a side note, I’d like to know how anyone can call the Repugs “the party of national security” when to cover up their own lies, they are willing to compromise an undercover agent and any of her contacts and sources?
The Repugs are the party of “Cover Your Ass”!
Bill Maher should get her as a guest.Let her speak her mind
mudshark @ 9:
Good idea! I’d like to see her on Bill Moyers’ show as well!
Seriously, wtf is wrong with Couric? If my wife was a covert CIA agent and our own government outed her and not one person to this day was held accountable, I’d be still seething too. The entire country should be outraged by this willful and treasonous destruction of an intelligence asset. Novak and any government official involved with leaking to him or any other reporter should be prosecuted and recognized for the traitorous SOB’s they are. I mean I thought 9/11 changed everything. When is it ever ok to out an intelligence asset? I keep forgetting it’s IOKIYAR. Yet, repugs are supposed to be stronger on national security issues. The GOP is nothing but a party of thugs, closet cases, hypocrites and traitors.
If Cheney & Co. did not know Plame’s job in the CIA, and they were considering leaking her name, then it was their f*cking job to find out what damage they were getting ready to do. But they just didn’t give a damn. It’s as simple as that. To hell with national security and a person’s career when something benefits them.
shorter Jack Moss:
I ♥ Treason
odanny @ 5:
“Well” what?
I thought a couple of times Valerie Plame was going to get out of her chair and slap Katie silly. I wish she would have.
news flash for Jack Moss:
The CIA says Valerie was a covert agent.
Her classmates from Quantico, including Larry Johnson, say she was a covert agent.
About the only people who refuse to believe that she was a covert agent are Bush cultists.
Whom should I believe… people who know what they are talking about, or people who will say and do anything to rationalize everything done by Worst President Ever?
Jack Moss @ 13:
What did she lie about?
r€nato @ 14:
That about sums it up
13 Jack Moss Says:
A judge dismissed her suit and she lied to in her congressional testimony.
Could you explain what the hell this means?
[deleted - you’re itching for a flame war and it stops here.]
Couric is a totally owned “asset” of “CORPRATE “MERIKA” and knows only too well what would happen to her “career” if she did not sling all the mud possible in defense of HER “DEAR LEADER” which would be about the same if she were Korean and shamed their DICTATOR!
Just follow the money, folks! Katie is one of the better paid “hos” in TV…..
Just another corporate media whore outrage.
It is an everyday occurrence now.
My God, let’s blame the victim, Ms. Katie Couric. I’d hate to see you interview a rape victim.
The judge dismissed her lawsuit because he was a bushbot.
WC @ 14:
Well, I probably wont read it. Instead I’ll opt for “Bush At War” or this one instead
Good assesment Valerie but this has to be the understatement of the century
“It turns out, the president is not a man of his word.”
Worst. President. Ever. What will the Democrats do when history asks why wasn’t Bush impeached and removed for his crimes (he is a criminal).
Couric: “But admit it, this comes awfully close to what you were doing - even covertly; I mean you were trying to ascertain whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, he’s writing an article saying it’s really not valid, this one assertion. I mean, can’t you see how those two things might collide in a very dangerous way?”
This is the imperative form of admit. Confess. Declare that you were wrong. This isn’t 60 minutes. This is Room 101, and Couric fancies herself O’Brien, the Inquisitor.
I thought she was meant to be a journalist. I must have been wrong. I’ll admit that, to anyone.
I like the fact that she can be outed but can’t in any way publicly tell about the damage done to America’s intel.
GonzoD @ 8:
Until you’re next to them in the men’s room.
Oh, and Jack? Hope you like Gitmo, because that’s where you right-wing traitors will be going.
Couric is [deleted] What a Tool.
I’m convinced that Katie has been convinced that this is what it means to be “tough” on her interviewees in order to not be attacked for being “liberal.” Remember Ann Coulter talking about her as the “Eva Braun” of liberalism? Read the messages on the CBS website, for a real Freeper fest. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories.....8089.shtml
The other thing, of course, is that Valerie does perfectly well responding to the ridiculous charges.
If you don’t like Katie’s interview, sign into the comments section and leave some sane remarks to oppose the full freeper onslaught.
By the way, on that URL is also a part of the interview that didn’t air: that Valerie Plame was working on making sure that we knew about Iran’s program, and (possibly) that had something to do with selling them phony plans that would be a waste of time.
If the outing of Valerie Plame was a serious crime, how come Pat Fitzgerald never indicted the two men everybody in America knows were responsible for her outing; Karl Rove & Dick Cheney? Those two dirtbags were not even subpoenaed or placed under oath.The whole Plame investigation was a sham. Fitzgerald netted a sardine named Scooter; he let the big tunas named Rove & Cheney swim free. The Plame fiasco was one big joke. The gullible American public is the laughingstock.
odanny @ 24:
Mmmm…OK.
Sounds like a fair interview.
Remember the sickening clip of Couric in Michael Moore’s Fareheit 911?
“Navy Seals Rock!!”
Jim H @ 30:
Well, they could have bumped Rooney’s a** and aired that part of the interview. But that ran the chance of actually showing real journalistic integrity, and, well, golly, we just can’t have that.
Don’t be silly with your criticisms of Couric. Do you want her to be the equivalent of Hannity interviewing Coulter? It was good to ask the questions that part of the audience is wondering about, and let Plame and Wilson answer, and they did just that and well. Would you rather have a lovefest for them? Maybe Couric should do more of that with other guests, but that’s a separate issue.
how low 60 Minutes has sunk without Don Hewitt around. Katie Couric? Exactly what are her qualifications for being on this show alongside legends like Mike Wallace?
Another reason that Katie Couric should be fired and why Andy Rooney cannot stand her.
Ozymandias @ 34:
Yup. But she was doing soft journalism for NBC at the time, a corporation that fired Phil Donahue because of his stated reservations on the reasoning behind the impending war.
I always liked Dan Rather. I still like Dan Rather and watch him on HDNet. And I personally agree with his assessment of CBS when he said hiring Couric was “tarting up and dumbing down” the Evening News.
mrogi @ 31:
I believe Fitz couldn’t get Cheney and Rove because Scooter, as Fitz explained it, threw sand in his eyes. Scooter took the fall to save Rove and Cheney. And got his sentence commuted as a thank you kiss from Bush.
Couric probably works for the CIA. She will never be “outed” because she and Cheney see eye to eye.
Katie acted like a dim-wit. She is just another tool for the propaganda machine.
mrogi @ 31:
Ever think of changing your name to mrogi_tool?
nz @ 36:
I remember Katie’s interview with the boy Bush. It was all softballs tossed into his lap. She was all goo goo eyed.
Saw the interview tonight and there were several points when I wanted to [deleted - do not advocate violence here.] Especially when she accuses Plame of being partisan. Plame, being both smarter and classier than Couric, handled it with aplomb, simply saying that the treatment she has received from the White House has made her partisan. Very good interview on her part. Couric needs to sent back out to covering 4-H and Garden Clubs. Useless Republican shill.
F Couric and her beltwayitis. Kudos to Plame
Just what we needed, another reason to dislike Couric even more.
What would be a better title for this post?
Airhead Fluff vs The Right Stuff
or
Corporate Twit vs True Grit
This is so freaking mind boggling.
One of your true unsung heroes, down in the trenches risking life and limb gets treated with outright contempt and disbelief.
Kristol, Limbaugh and the other merchants of death are upheld as patriots.
Don’t mind that sound, ’twas just my head asploding.
Katie Couric is a is a parody of a serious interviewer.
jr @ 46:
Does she have Beltway tits?
Oh, sorry, i see…
BeaverBoy, dam!