Not every newspaper reporter or TV journalist works in a highly competitive media environment. When I was attending college at Cal Poly SLO, the media market extended from Santa Barbara north to SLO. The three network affiliates were based in SLO, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria -- and their newscasts reflected that even though they had bureaus in the other cities. The SLO-based station would have 5 SLO-area stories and only one Santa Barbara story, and the Santa Barbara-based station was just the opposite.

Similarly, when I worked at The Daily World in Aberdeen, Wash., it was rare to have a Seattle-area TV station visit our coverage area. We were also the only newspaper in town and the main reason to get stories done right, quickly and accurately was purely professional pride.

So, it's easy to understand why small-town reporters would be unfamiliar with the practice by some news sources -- from government, government agencies to businesses and charitable groups -- of delivering exclusives to favored reporters or publications.

As a reporter, it can be frustrating to be scooped this way by a competitor.

But in the case that's got the media in a serious tizzy -- former vice president chief of staff Lewis Libby's disclosure of some of the contents of the National Intelligence Estimate to the New York Times ahead of its general public release at the direction of the president -- is not a leak; it's an exclusive.

Which makes today's editorial in the San Diego Union-Tribune puzzling -- you'd think they have more sense.

Yes, there is a case to be made that this didn't involve illegal leaking, since the president arguably can declassify what he wants.

Arguably? Arguably? This is a cheap and dishonest way to suggest that he may not have the authority to declassify material, when I haven't heard anyone argue the contrary.

Yes, the White House had cause to leak - to counter the deceptive claims of former U.S. diplomat Joseph C. Wilson that in the run-up to the Iraq war, the Bush team lied about Saddam Hussein's pursuit of uranium in Africa for nuclear weapons.

Deceptive claims? The man is a proven liar.

Yes, there is no evidence Bush authorized the outing of Wilson's wife, CIA agent Valerie Plame, which prompted the hiring of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

Then why mention it at all?

But none of this can rationalize the hypocrisy evident in the White House's long-standing claim to be appalled by any leaks involving national security, whether they dealt with Plame, Iraq, Iran, Israel, you name it.

It wasn't a leak, it was some calculated public relations ploy to get some favor from the New York Times. I'll say it again: The President of the United States had declassified it. If someone has the authority to release information, whether it's the President of the United States or the president of your local water board, it's not a leak.

I know the Union-Tribune editorial board has been moving from the right to the center-right, but it's saying something when NPR's liberal Juan Williams can recognize the difference but a supposedly right-leaning newspaper editorial board can't.

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To be honest, I'm not sure that this is evidence of liberal media bias as much as it is evidence of gotcha-at-any-cost. All of these big-time White House reporters know this wasn't a leak. All of the politicians in Congress know it too. This is nothing more than a manufactured scandal to fill a few hours of air time and talking-head shows. And the media elites wonders why they are held in ever-lower esteem?