Jurors are still deliberating former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's fate in the trial over nothing. But the "Media Blog" over at National Review Online highlights this column by Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell regarding the op-ed piece by Victoria Toensing I highlighted last week.

While Toensing is a partisan, she also filed a friend-of-the-court brief during the leak investigation with media lawyer Bruce W. Sanford on behalf of 36 news organizations, including The Post. She and Sanford, who also worked on the 1982 law, argued that journalists shouldn't have to testify because no crime was committed if [Valerie] Plame wasn't a covert operative. Editors should have mentioned the court filing in the Outlook piece.

While columnists, reporters, TV personalities and newscasters have repeatedly referred to her as a covert operative, the media companies that these assorted types work for have argued in court just the opposite. And it's an argument they've won, as evidenced by the fact that to this day the government still will not say for sure that Plame was outed illegally.

*On a related note* Check out this cartoon by Michael Ramirez.