There seems to be a drought of news about the CIA leak investigation. Maybe people are trying not to upset Robert Novak again, for fear of what he might do next, given his recent public freakout. But for those thirsting for more speculation and hypothetical blame-placing regarding the infamous leak, Vanity Fair is coming out with an article that sees Time Magazine and The New York Times as having been part of a conspiracy to cover the leak up. The Columbia Journalism review has a summary.

Michael Wolff deals with the Rove/Plame/Miller fracas in this month’s Vanity Fair (the article isn’t available online). Wolff manages to find a unique approach to the issue, positing the thesis that the New York Times and Time magazine are complicit in the cover-up of the fudging of intelligence in the prelude to war in Iraq — in that they knew Rove was the source of the Plame leak intended to discredit Joe Wilson after he called the administration to account. “Not only did highly placed members of the media and the vaunted news organizations they worked for know it, not only did they sit on what will not improbably be among the biggest stories of the Bush years, they helped cover it up. You could even plausibly say that these organizations became part of a conspiracy — they entered into an understanding that, as a quid pro quo for certain information, they would refuse to provide evidence about a crime possibly having been committed by the president’s closest confidant.”