Hubris: Writing a Book About 2 People Without Interviewing Them

By Byron York on Nationalreview.com:

Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War, the new book by the Nation’s David Corn and Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff, is the most in-depth single account yet of the CIA-leak investigation. But representatives of two central figures in the case, former Cheney chief of staff Lewis Libby and top White House aide Karl Rove, say the authors never got in touch with them, much less interviewed them, for the book. ...

In an excerpt of Hubris published in Newsweek, Isikoff writes that Novak “caused a huge stir when he revealed that Valerie Plame, wife of Iraq-war critic Joseph Wilson, was a CIA officer.” But when it was originally published, Novak’s column caused virtually no stir at all — until Corn published an article claiming that Mrs. Wilson worked under "nonofficial cover" for the CIA. And even then, there wasn’t much notice until New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer picked up on Corn’s article and demanded an investigation. Those demands, combined with a leaked letter to the Justice Department from then-CIA Director George Tenet calling for an investigation, eventually created the political pressure that caused the Justice Department to begin a formal probe, which continues today under special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.