Jason Leopold Steals Pied Piper Pitt's Fitzmas

A strange thing has happened over the course of the past year. Whenever I search the name of either Karl Rove or Patrick Fitzgerald in Google News, another name keeps popping up, JASON LEOPOLD, who appears as the reporter of some amazing (but wildly inaccurate) insider information on the CIA "Leak" case. Often Jason Leopold appears as the SOLE source of information which NO OTHER reporter has been able to unearth. So who is this intrepid reporter that is constantly on top of the CIA "Leak" case ("Leak" in quotations since it is NOT a crime to reveal the name of a non-covert CIA worker, thus no "Leak")? Well, according to HOWARD KURTZ of the Washington Post, Jason Leopold is a former cocaine addict who has admitted to lying, cheating and backstabbing. In addition, Leopold has served time for grand larceny, has attempted suicide, and has battled mental illness his whole life. WHEW! But wait, there's MORE! Leopold's credibility is so shot through with holes that the publisher, Rowland & Littlefield, cancelled his book, "Off the Record," just days before it was due to go to press. But wait...there's STILL MORE! Leopold was also fired by the Los Angeles Times for threatening to rip a reporter's head off. Leopold already shaky credibility suffered even more when Salon retracted its story authored by Jason Leopold about a Bush admininstration official saying that it couldn't (surprise, surprise) authenticate the piece.

So now that Jason Leopold has been thoroughly discredited, where can he turn to in order to get his fiction published? To Pied Piper Pitt's Truthout.Org site of course. For the past few months, Truthout has become the headquarters for Jason Leopold's Fitzmas fiction tales. The latest piece of Leopold fiction was proudly promoted by Pied Piper Pitt in this DUmmie THREAD titled, "Jason Leopold: Target Letter Drives Rove Back to Grand Jury (full story)." In this exclusive Truthout "scoop," Jason Leopold proclaimed that "I confirmed with sources close to the investigation that Rove did in fact receive a target letter," and that "My sources maintain that Rove is a target and that Luskin understood that." Only one "little" problem here. Neither Karl Rove nor his lawyer, Luskin, received target letters as was revealed soon after this Pitt post. OOOPS! As a result, Leopold had to issue a lame RETRACTION in which he says the story still COULD be true because Luskin wouldn't return his phone call.

So let us now watch Pied Piper Pitt's credibility sink even lower on the Good Ship Leopold in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, thinking that Jason Leopold could be up for the Pulitzer according to current MSM standards, is in the [brackets]:

Target Letter Drives Rove Back to Grand Jury
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t Issue
Wednesday 26 April 2006

[Ooooh! Oooooh! Another Jason Leopold exclusive scoop hot off the pages of Truthout!]

Karl Rove's appearance before a grand jury in the CIA leak case Wednesday comes on the heels of a "target letter" sent to his attorney recently by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, signaling that the Deputy White House Chief of Staff may face imminent indictment, sources that are knowledgeable about the probe said Wednesday.

It's unclear when Fitzgerald sent the target letter to Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin. Sources close to the two-year-old leak investigation said when Rove's attorney received the letter Rove volunteered to appear before the grand jury for an unprecedented fifth time to explain why he did not previously disclose conversations he had with the media about covert CIA operative Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who criticized the Bush administration's use of pre-war Iraq intelligence.

A federal grand jury target letter is sent to a person in a criminal investigation who is likely to be indicted. A "target" of a grand jury investigation is a person who a prosecutor has substantial evidence to link to a crime.

Last week, Rove was stripped of some of his policy duties in a White House shakeup orchestrated by incoming Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten. The White House insisted that Rove was not demoted, but insiders said the executive branch is bracing for a possible indictment against Rove.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042606I.shtml

[ON TARGET! Which is why he later issued a lame RETRACTION of his own story.]

If Jason Leopold were not credible, and his sources not backed up in triplicate, truthout.org would not run him.

[Hey Pitt! Did you even do the most basic of Google searches to check on the credibilty of Jason Leopold? It took me all of about 20 seconds to find out this guy is a FRAUD. And the only reason why you are seeing things in triplicate is due to spending too much time slurping down the refreshments at Bukowski's.]

It seems Mr. Leopold has gone from one writing job to the next. Getting the facts right is a real obstacle to his employment.

[LOUSY FREEPER TROLL!!!]

I am the lead writer and a senior editor for truthout and as such, am centrally involved in the process of examining these stories. What happened before with Jason is widely known, but has no bearing upon current matters. Jason's sources for these Plame stories are as solid as concrete, and he has backed up each story threefold. Again: we would not run his stuff if he was not credible, and we have been 100% hands-on in personally vetting each story and each source. Jason's work is above reproach on this matter.

[Pied Piper Pitt puffs up his chest in defense of Jason Leopold's credibility despite knowing that Leopold has posted fact challenged stories in the past. BTW, I would love to watch Pitt doing a "100% hands-on in personally vetting each story and each source." I heard he did a lot of hands-on personal "vetting" of "sources" at a certain Newton school.]

WaPo article today says this is incorrect. Does Jason have something more current?

[Just give Jason a minute to make something up that Pied Piper Pitt can personally 100% hands-on vet.]

You of course notice that no examples
are provided...just a drive-by smearing of a reporter's integrity.

[You need to send Rush Limbaugh a royalty payment whenever you use that "drive-by" term.]

A smear? Check the story citation for a look at Mr. Leopold's career that I provided in response to Will's comment. There are plenty of examples in the article. Integrity, he ain't got. Ever wonder why Leopold is not quoted in the top liberal blogs like Murray Waas and a few other online reporters are? No one takes him seriously. I mean no ill will to Jason personally, but don't give him credibility he doesn't deserve just because you want to believe what he writes

[Don't worry. Jason Leopold will always remain the Truthout star reporter.]

Jason is completely up-front about the troubles in his past. Hell, he even wrote a book about it. He isn't hiding the mistakes he has made, and speaking personally, I can say that he has moved mountains to do his job with passion and integrity. His work on this matter is above reproach.

[But did you 100% personally vet the fact that Jason Leopold's book was removed from publication due to lack of credibility, Pitt?]

I trust the integrity of Truthout, and considering his top notch reporting on Plame, I have no reason to be dubious.

[Enjoying the Kool Aid?]

I find the references to Jason's past to be unnecessary.

[YUP! Let's just overlook the fact that Jason Leopold has a long history of being less than credible and just believe fully in what he has to say now. So will you be sending in another $10 to Bev Harris?]

In this case, if you question Jason's integrity, aren't you also...questioning Will Pitt's integrity as lead writer and senior editor of Truthout? Isn't that what you're really saying? Don't you think Will fact-checks Jason's work before he allows it to be published on the Truthout website?

[I'll put it like this: Pied Piper Pitt is just as credible as Jason Leopold.]

Luskin just issued a statement... saying the prosecutor has informed his client that he is not a target of the investigation. The statement was read on CNN a few minutes ago.

[QUICK! Give me another hit of that Jason Leopold Kool Aid to give me strength in warding off the unpleasant facts!]

Jason is adding this denial to his story. Smells like bullshit to me. Luskin is under no obligation to tell the truth to the press.

[Sure, Pitt. Luskin is purposely going to lie to the press in order to piss off Patrick Fitzgerald. Do you want me to read you another Jason Leopold fairy tale?]

Tim Grieve's got an informative post up at Salon...

Update: Truthout is reporting that sources "knowledgeable about the probe" are saying that Fitzgerald has notified Luskin in a letter that his client is, in fact, a target of the investigation. At the federal courthouse in Washington, a spokesman for Rove just told Salon's Michael Scherer that the report is "utterly false."

[And Salon knows just what the credibility level of Jason Leopold is given the fact that they had to REMOVE an article from their site that was written by him.]

I guess the thing I'm having trouble with is the "target letter" story.

[Why? With Jason Leopold reporting, how could it possibly be wrong?]

CNN: Luskin says NO target letter came from Fitz

[Stop with the facts already!!!]

Looks like Jason may have been wrong

[GASP!!! How dare you post that when Pied Piper Pitt assured us that he personally 100% vetted this story hands on in triplicate.]