I’ve been away from the computer all afternoon and am trying to get caught up on the Valerie Plame testimony hubbub. It has been difficult because the story, quite literally, keeps changing. Memeorandum links to a story by AP’s Matt Apuzzo entitled, “Plame: My Cover Was ‘Recklessly’ Abused.” Following that link, however, leads to a William Branigin piece entitled, “At Hearing, Plame Rebukes Bush Administration CIA Operative Says Her Cover Was ‘Carelessly and Recklessly’ Destroyed.” Meanwhile, YahooNews now links to a totally different AP story by Julie Hirschfeld Davis entitled, “Plame remarks spark Capitol Hill stir.”
I had the pleasure of meeting Matt at the Scooter Libby trial and happen to trust his knowledge of the case and his fairness in reporting the story, so getting his version is important. Additionally, Tom Maguire had high praise for it.
Thankfully, the fact that I know Matt wrote a story is helpful because I can search for him by name via GoogleNews. Lo and behold, the LA Chronicle has at least a version of that piece. (Wire service stories tend to be posted on the fly and then constantly re-edited without acknowledgment of changes.)
Why can’t online outlets assign a permanent URL to each version of a story? Surely, they can afford the disk space.
Off to work on the Plame post…
