Hadley? Libby? Rove? Whatever

A reporter misspeaks.

Published December 13, 2005 8:07PM (EST)

Never mind.

At the same moment that the Washington Post is worried that Dan Froomkin's column at washingtonpost.com is somehow confusing readers and undercutting the paper's credibility -- at least with people who work for George W. Bush -- the Post is admitting that one of its reporters misspoke Monday when he suggested that National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley leaked Valerie Plame's identity to Karl Rove.

As we noted earlier today, the Post's Jim VandeHei said in passing on "Hardball" last night that Hadley was one of the people who told Rove of Plame's identity. But in an online chat today, Washington Post reporter Peter Baker says his colleague simply stumbled over his words. "Jim informs me he did misspeak," Baker said in response to a question from a reader. "He meant to say chatter between Rove and [Scooter] Libby, not Hadley. That's the trick with television, it's hard to correct."

Baker said he appreciated the "opportunity to set the record straight." And just in case you're confused, we should be clear that the opportunity came in the virtual pages of washingtonpost.com, which is not the Washington Post, which is the paper where Baker and VandeHei do most of their reporting, except when they're appearing on TV shows like "Hardball" or at washingtonpost.com. Got it?


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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