As the Libby Trial enters the next phase, I’ve found it interesting to ask the question, what is the trial all about. My most literal friends who are following the trial closely respond with comments about perjury and obstruction of justice in Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation into who leaked the identity of Valerie Plame. Some of my more stalwart liberal friends talk about it in terms of Bush’s rush to war and the dangers of the twenty-first century military (and media) industrial complex.

Digging deeper, the trial reflects a couple interesting trends in our country. One is, “who controls the flow of information?” This is not just an issue of who was controlling the flow of information from the administration to the mainstream media, but how the mainstream media controls information when it decides whether or not to run with certain stories, what reporters are willing to tell to investigators and what role investigators need to play in gathering information about what is really going on with our government. It includes the relationship between blogs and the mainstream media in who gets which stories out, and even the relationship between the conservatives and the liberals in all aspects of the media.