Chris Gelken has nearly 20 years experience as a photographer, writer, news editor and broadcaster.

For the past 11 years Chris has been based in Asia where he now works for Hong Kong's leading AM radio news station, Metro Plus.

Chris also contributes freelance material on a wide variety of topics to newspapers, magazines and radio networks internationally.

You would think that after all of the attention that Brill's Content brought to bear on the indiscriminate and inaccurate leaking in the magazine's "Pressgate" article, the press might have at least gotten a little bit of the message.

Think again.

Yesterday morning on NBC's Today, Tim Russert, a journalist once admired for his relative fairness and thoroughness up until the words "Monica Lewinsky" were injected into the national psyche, once again tried to hitch his wagon to a Starr with a "blockbuster" breaking story based on unnamed "Congressional sources." Here's what was said:

Russert: …lots of suggestions coming out of people close to Ken Starr that perhaps the Secret Service facilitated for President Clinton. Remember that code word. It was used about the state troopers in Little Rock. And if in fact Ken Starr is trying to find information that can in fact conflict with President Clinton's sworn testimony that he did no have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky he is going for it.

Lauer: Just 10 seconds -- I want you to clear that; when you say they facilitated for President Clinton, just clear that up, what exactly do you mean there?

Russert: I didn't say they did, but there are suggestions…

Lauer: May have…

Russert: …that Ken Starr is driving for that information: was a Secret Service agent an accomplice in trying to cover up a relationship with Monica Lewinsky?

The report hit the Beltway like a bombshell.

Unfortunately for Russert and NBC, it proved to be another "dud" of the "semen-stained dress" variety -- or, for that matter, the Arkansas trooper "facilitation" stories whose credibility even David Brock, who originally reported them in right-wing magazine The American Spectator, now questions. Given the mention of congressional sources and "people close to Ken Starr," the unfounded report sounds awfully like the sort of innuendo that Dan Burton aide David Bossie might be eager to slip to the press.

But the matter of who may have leaked the smear pales before the conduct of Russert, NBC's senior Washington correspondent, whose continued eagerness to jump on the "scandal" bandwagon and glom onto another bone thrown to him by Starr's camp further undercuts his reputation and reliability as a journalist.

It also raises serious questions regarding the grand jury secrecy -- questions which strongly imply the possibility of a criminal leak by someone involved in Starr's investigations.

And the White House minced no words. In his press briefing yesterday, White House spokesman Mike McCurry was uncharacteristically terse: "It is utterly outrageous and venomous for Ken Starr to allow his staff to impugn the integrity of the president of the United States and the people who are required by law to protect him… [Clinton's Secret Service detail] should not be slimed by Ken Starr and his operatives."

McCurry also lashed out against Russert and his story: "He's now helped his viewers understand that Ken Starr has laundered the information through the Starr operation's friends on Capitol Hill. That's good, when news organizations give you a little more help in understanding what their anonymous sources are about."

McCurry fielded an unusual amount of questioning and commentary from the press which was clearly defensive in nature. Once again, the press themselves look like fools "circling the wagons" to defend one of their own.

Meanwhile, presidential counsels Bob Bennett and David Kendall continued their effort to quash Starr's subpoenas to members of Clinton's secret Service detail. In a blunt press release, they said
Starr "appears to be tracking private counsel's meetings and conversations with the president in an effort to intrude on that relationship… Let us be clear: any backdoor attempt by this prosecutor to invade the president's right to consult with personal counsel will be aggressively and firmly resisted."

And while they did not address Russert's scurrilous report of early Wednesday morning, one could not help but make the connection between Starr's efforts to compel testimony from the Secret Service while impugning both the president and his guardians -- a colossal blunder which only serves to further telegraph the clear political underpinnings of his so-called "investigation" of Whitewater.

Last night, Judge Norma Holloway Johnson refused to have the subpoenas quashed late yesterday, but early this morning an emergency ruling by Chief Justice William Rehnquist -- who also serves as chief judge for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia -- stayed the subpoenas.

This came as a surprise not only to me but the staff here at APJ. Rehnquist, whose rulings have largely been in sync with Ken Starr, delivered a serious blow to Starr's efforts to compel testimony from Secret Service agents. While we are not as sanguine in our expectations for a decision favorable to the Justice and Treasury Departments by the full Court of Appeals, it sends a clear message that Starr has once again overstepped the bounds of not only decency but individual rights.

And there we have it -- in a matter of just over one "news cycle," we are left with the clear impression that a smear was leaked to the press with the clear intent to impugn the reputation of not only the president but the Secret Service and bolster the crumbling impression that Ken Starr "has" something and needs to continue this investigation.

Instead, the "congressional sources," desperate to create more scandal, succeeded in sliming Starr, their press allies, and themselves.