NYT TV reviewer Stanley: A Prosecutor's Arresting Performance

[DeepModem Mom]

A Prosecutor's Arresting Performance
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: October 29, 2005


In a dizzying kaleidoscope of split-screens and news crawls, one figure stood out on all the major networks yesterday - the special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, breaking his silence at long last.

And for that hour of live television, his blunt, staccato voice was the only one being heard. At one point in Mr. Fitzgerald's news conference, CNN split the screen to include live tape of a speech by Vice President Dick Cheney, whom the special prosecutor had just named as one of the government officials who told I. Lewis Libby Jr. about Valerie Wilson's day job.

Mr. Cheney stood at a lectern in Georgia surrounded by applauding troops in camouflage, smiling his crooked grin and talking soundlessly: news programs kept the vice president's sound off and the microphones glued to Mr. Fitzgerald.

The special prosecutor gave an arresting performance - and not just because he laid out why the grand jury had indicted Mr. Cheney's chief of staff on five criminal counts.

In any turmoil, television seeks a hero. Stepping above the political wrangling, Mr. Fitzgerald presented himself to viewers as a righteous, homespun voice of reason, using baseball metaphors to explain his investigation and the flag to defend it....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/politics/29watch.html