http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002760.html<snip>
Actually, there's a columnist at little Ripon College in Wisconsin named Joe Fontaine who's already a lot better than your average college paper hack. A few weeks ago, upon learning that Tim Russert was coming to speak at yet another "ethics in journalism" conference, Fontaine wrote a great open letter to the NBC "Meet the Press" host urging him to explain his lack of information on his involvement in the "Scooter" Libby case.
A couple of weeks later, Russert showed up, and a couple of other students sent the word to Fontaine: the Godfather wanted to meet with him.
Surprised, motivated, and not a little curious to see what was to come, I entered the room and watched the press conference proceed, asking my own question unrelated to the content of the column. I noticed shortly thereafter that Mr. Russert had turned the page in his binder of notes to reveal a familiarly formatted page- my column, annotated in black ink. And he soon raised a finger, looked at me, and revealed that Scott and Andy had been quoting directly: he wanted to talk to me.
Talk about "Meet the Press"! They discussed the headline (which doesn't strike us as that far off) and -- heaven forbid -- one phrase that was poorly crafted by this aspiring college journalist and thus somewhat misleading. But God bless "Little Joe" Fontaine, because he stood firm on the main point of his piece, that:
...there is a difference between acknowledging your involvement and explaining it. Mr. Russert has not fully informed viewers of what he knows about the case, nor, for that matter, did he reveal his involvement while questioning others involved in the case in the fall of 2003....And I note here, though I was unable at the conference, that the third point to which Mr. Russert objected was cited directly from Editor and Publisher. He may take up that concern with E&P staff.
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