Novak caught lying again on Meet the Press

Novak’s Meet the Press interview marked by further inaccuracy and obfuscation.

This issue of Plame’s name vs. her identity is just stupid so I won’t get into it suffice it to say that Novak TWICE said he was given her name (though he nows claims that he misspoke). Russert does give it to him on this one.

However, the issue of the Senate Report is important. Novak just lies about stuff & Russert lets him get away with it.

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On the same program, Novak initially repeated the false claim that the Senate Intelligence Committee’s 2004 Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq concluded that it was Plame who had “initiate[d]” Wilson’s trip to Niger. Novak said: “I then called the CIA, and the spokesman told me that she [Plame] didn’t initiate it, she facilitated it. That – that happened to be wrong, because the Senate Intelligence Committee has said that she did initiate the trip and they have a document to prove it.” Russert challenged Novak, noting that the bipartisan report did not conclude that Plame had initiated the trip. Novak then acknowledged that it was actually “the Republican majority” that came to that conclusion, but then misleadingly claimed that the committee Democrats “didn’t dissent” from the Republicans, and again claimed there is a document that proves the Republicans right:

RUSSERT: Well, the Senate Intelligence Committee indicated that, but they did not conclude it.

NOVAK: The – I believe that the – that the Republican majority concluded it.

RUSSERT: The Republican majority did, but the Democrats did not.

NOVAK: They didn’t – they didn’t take it up and they didn’t dissent from it, either.

RUSSERT: It’s not an official conclusion, but it is in the report as an indication.

NOVAK: And the – and there’s a document that – that confirms it.

Russert failed to challenge Novak to expand upon his claim of a single “document” that “confirms” Plame “initiate[d]” Wilson’s trip to Niger. But as Media Matters for America has noted, unnamed intelligence officials have been quoted in the media claiming that it was the CIA – not Plame – that selected Wilson for the trip. Also, CIA officials have challenged the accuracy of a State Department intelligence document that reportedly indicates Plame “suggested” Wilson for the trip. Committee chairman Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), in his addendum to the report, noted that “my Democrat colleagues refused to allow the following conclusion[] to appear in the report: Conclusion: The plan to send the former ambassador to Niger was suggested by the former ambassador’s wife, a CIA employee.”