Perhaps an attempt to reignite the media firestorm over Karl Rove, a front page story in Thursday's Washington Post based on a secret June 2003 State Department memo "central" to the Valerie Plame leak investigation and leaked to staff writers Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei was given a misleading headline which prompts readers into thinking Valerie Plame's was widely known in the Bush administration as that of a covert CIA agent. For a government official such as Karl Rove to knowingly reveal the name of a covert agent is the crime which lies at the heart of the grand jury inquiry into the matter, and at the heart of liberal media interest in the story. A slightly more accurate but still misleading headline was posted on the Post's home page, though not the actual Web version of the article, which correctly notes that the memo was marked secret, not Plame's name.

Not an instance of bias, but a touch of humor: The Late Late Show's host Craig Ferguson gently ribbed his network's entertainment and news lineup during his opening monologue last night/this early morning, scoring laughs off the tedium of CBS's 60 Minutes by comparing that show to braving long lines at theme parks.

“When I first moved to southern California, I went to Disneyland, it was bigger than my hometown. Really, why, I get lost. I loved it though I thought, if I ever have a kid I’m going to bring him or her to Disneyland, and the time is coming, because my son, I think, he’s four years old. He’s ready. He’s, you know, I’m getting little clues, he’s saying things like, ‘Daddy, will you take me to Disneyland.’ I’m ambivalent about taking him to an ABC/Disney theme park. You know, I wish CBS had a theme park too. Imagine the rides? It’d be fantastic. Everybody Rides Raymond, that’d be nice, that’d be nice. CSI of the Caribbean would be a lot, I dunno, 60 Minutes, waiting in line, I dunno, anyway...”

In an interview taped a couple of days ago but aired on this morning's (Thursday's) show, Katie Couric asked Bill Clinton whether he thought Executive Branch employees should be fired for any ethical lapse, whether or not it was criminal:

"President Clinton as you well know President Bush has been under fire recently because Karl Rove allegedly released the identity of a CIA agent to reporters. President Bush has said it's a fireable offense now if a crime was committed but in your view is the ethical violation enough to warrant dismissal?"

The funniest part -- Couric seemed oblivous to the irony of asking this question of Bill Clinton, the walking, talking poster boy of getting away with "ethical violations," and even perjury and obstruction of justice, because the media would let him get away with anything short of a criminal conviction.

NYT reporter Hassan Fattah touts a left-wing anti-war report on civilian casualties in Iraq, a Wednesday story topped with a headline that betrays none of the politicized controversy over the report. Instead the head lends the hodge-podge "report" (basically a collection of news clippings) a false sense of authority: "Civilian Toll in Iraq Is Placed at Nearly 25,000." As if it's the authorative word on the matter. Yet the researchers are affiliated with far-left outfits like Counterpunch and Peace UK (and, strangely, a lot of music departments all over England). Hardly a scholarly "report."

"Michael Moore, Truth Teller." -- July 18 headline in the NYT's art section.