Did The White House Mislead?

Frankly, it’s not the anchor chair of the CBS Evening News, but John Roberts should be pretty happy with his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Brian at our cousin TVNewser has some details on the coverage.

And, for the record, the CBS version of Roberts made one reference to the fact that he shared a name with the nominee. During the West Coast evening news, just 30 minutes before the President’s speech, CBS’ Roberts announced the name and said, “no relation to this correspondent.”

While we imagine that the story will quickly turn to the bloodbath about to ensue, NPR’s Don Gonyea offers some tantalizing clues about how the nomination happened–including the fact that the day-long rumors about Edith Clement were fueled by a “confidential but persuasive” source.

Who was the source and what was his or her motive? Did the press corps get intentionally misdirected by a White House smokescreen? Did the press promise confidentiality to someone who lied to them?

Given all of the attention to leaks and sourcing in recent weeks, some enterprising reporter should follow this story up today.

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