The G-Word

"It speaks to the state of cable news that we sat in shock and awe for the better part of an hour, as anchors Zain Verjee and Jim Clancy did nothing more than deliver the news like it's supposed to be done.

"The newscast kicked off with an in-depth report on the latest developments in Sudan, as the International Criminal Court announced today that it would begin an investigation into alleged war crimes. Yes, that would be the same genocide that CNNI's U.S. counterpart hasn't found the time to bother with for pretty much all of 2005. For eight minutes -- nearly an eternity in cable news -- CNN turned to correspondent Nic Robertson for the story on the ICC and then to Pultizer prize-winning Professor Samantha Power to address the obvious question -- will the ICC's intervention do anything to curb the violence?

"Throughout Robertson's report CNNI ran stock footage of burned villages, famished refugees and sick children to emphasize the severity of the crisis.

From Sudan, 'Your World Today' moved on to a speech by Syria's President Bashar Assad to the Syrian Baath Congress. . . . Next up was a quick report on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's trip to Asia to deal with North Korea's nuclear threat, amidst published reports that the United States might try to initiate UN action against the rogue Communist state. Rumsfeld denied those reports on-camera.

"Stunned by 15 straight minutes of actual news, we heard an equally incredulous CJR colleague in the background quip, 'It's weird to be watching news.' And indeed it was."

And for those who haven't had enough of the Deep Throat saga, this Albany Times Union piece says there were other throats:

"At the height of the Watergate investigation more than three decades ago, three high-ranking FBI officials conspired with the agency's deputy director to leak information about their probe to the press.

"The revelation of that collaboration by a retired FBI agent in conversations in recent days with the Times Union casts W. Mark Felt -- who admitted last week to being the media source known as Deep Throat -- not as a disgruntled maverick, as some have suggested, but rather as the leader of a clandestine group that fought White House efforts to contain the sprawling investigation.

"Paul V. Daly, 64, who joined the bureau in 1965 and went on to head field offices in Albany and North Carolina, told the Times Union last week that he learned in 1978 that Felt was Deep Throat and that he had not acted alone: At least three other FBI officials helped Felt secretly disclose information about the Watergate investigation to The Washington Post.

"The FBI officials met regularly in their Washington, D.C., offices to discuss what information they would reveal to fuel media interest. Their motive, according to Daly, was to counteract the Nixon White House's efforts to quash the FBI investigation of the Watergate burglary and related wrongdoing linked to the Oval Office. 'They wanted to protect the integrity of the FBI,' Daly said."