This Thursday, Congress sustained the President’s veto of an expanded Children’s Health Insurance bill. But two poster children, Bethany Wilkerson and Graeme Frost, got the lion’s share of media attention. Reporter James Carroll covered Senator Mitch McConnell’s connection to attacks on Frost.

With the opening of the Supreme Court's new term this week, Jeffrey Toobin's recently published book might help shed light on the inner workings of the notoriously tight-lipped nine. Toobin says that while gaining access and writing about the Court isn’t easy, it is necessary.

This week, a copy of the Government Accountability Office's Iraq assessment was leaked to the press, apparently for fear that the final version would be watered down. This not to be confused with the White House assessment from July … not to be confused with the upcoming ...

With the Senate about to debate an Iraq withdrawal plan this week, the White House released a summary of a new National Intelligence Estimate saying Al Qaeda is still a major threat. Chicago Tribune correspondent Mark Silva says the timing was no accident.

The Freedom of Information Act was supposed to give Americans timely access to government records. But 40 years after it went into effect, there are huge FOIA backlogs in most federal agencies. The National Security Archive’s Meredith Fuchs says a culture of secrecy is ...

35 years ago, five men were caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel. The burglary would give Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein the story of a lifetime, and help change the role of the press. Alicia Shepard, author of a new book on Watergate, ...

Recently, whistle-blowers converged for their first ever conference in the capital. The festivities celebrated the evolution of whistle-blowing from a solitary act-of-conscience to a veritable subculture. New Republic editor Eve Fairbanks brings us news from the front lines of informing.

In its reporting on Watergate, the Washington Post made Barry Sussman its special editor on the scandal. We asked him about the current scandal roiling Washington -- the firing of the "Gonzales Eight." Sussman says the press faces a similar problem now as it did ...

In 2002, a handful of lawmakers were privy to classified intel about Iraqi WMD. Behind closed doors, there was uncertainty. But in public, Bush officials told a different story. Senator Dick Durbin explains why he didn’t blow the whistle when it might have made a difference.

Socializing between reporters and the people they cover is part of the D.C. landscape. But when they actually tie the knot, are journalists in an ethical bind? We asked Fortune’s Washington Bureau Chief Nina Easton, wife of John McCain’s media advisor.

Way before the story of the fired U.S. attorneys hit the front pages, it was front and center on TPM Muckraker. The blog's reporter Paul Kiel describes how his site has mixed investigative reporting with the power of the reading masses to advance the story.

That's how Attorney General Alberto Gonzales characterized his department's handling of the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. Bob anatomizes Washington's favorite non-apology apology.

If 8 prosecutors were fired because they weren’t hard enough on Democrats, does that mean the other 85 were? Maybe. Communications professor John Cragan has found that Bush’s Justice Dept. has prosecuted 7 times as many Dems as Republicans.

U.S. attorneys, and the Attorney General for that matter, serve “at the pleasure of the president.” Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick explains the phrase, and grades the media's usage of it.

For 18 days in 1972, Thomas Eagleton, who died this week, was the Democratic vice-presidential candidate. Clark Hoyt was the cub reporter who abruptly ended his bid for office. Hoyt reflects on journalistic responsibility and regret.

The jury’s verdict is in – Scooter Libby is guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice. And yet still, editorialists have found plenty of room for dispute in what it all means. The Nation’s David Corn and the New York Sun's Josh Gerstein analyze the spin.

When Rep. John Murtha proposed new limits on the deployment of troops to Iraq, his plan was criticized by Republicans and their media allies as a ”slow bleed strategy.” It turns out that phrase wasn’t the spawn of politicians, but of a prominent

The president’s plan to send more than 20 thousand additional troops to Iraq is being hotly debated on Capitol Hill. But the troops are already shipping out. Defense analyst Bill Arkin says that while the press obsesses over politics, they’re missing the facts on the ground.

When Bill Clinton's press secretary, Mike McCurry, started allowing TV media to carry his daily press briefings live, he profoundly changed the daily ritual. McCurry and ABC News veteran Sam Donaldson discuss the extent to which the White House press corps is playing to the cameras.

A few years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court started releasing same-day audio recordings of selected oral arguments. We get reactions from two legal correspondents. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick wants all the tapes or none at all, but NPR’s Nina Totenberg says more tape means more headaches.