The play that doesn't work anymore

When things got hot the Bush administration has successfully run the change the subject play for most of it's reign. We saw it in phony terror alerts in the run up to the 2004 elections. Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post tells us that when it comes to Plamegate and Scooter Libby the play isn't working.

The flailing Bush presidency continues to spin off new compelling story lines almost daily; yesterday it was torture, today it's Bush as electoral albatross. It's almost inevitable that the media will let some fall by the wayside.

But according to a new Pew Research Center poll, the recent indictment of senior White House aide Scooter Libby is a really big deal: Even more important to the country, for instance, than the 1998 charges that President Bill Clinton lied under oath about Monica Lewinsky. Those, of course, led to Clinton's impeachment.

In the hope that the Libby story would simply fade away they have tried to change the subject. There was avian flu, a Supreme Court nomination and a trip to South America. But the story won't go away.

What Mr Froomkin doesn't discuss is why it's not working. One of the reasons Libby remains in the news is the corporate media is keeping it on the front page. In the past the media has been quick to assist in diversionary tactics but not this time.

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Libby, Plame, Bush Administration, Media