Yglesias has a post up questioning the motivations for leaking the source of information for the latest terror alert. More generally, I find the "motivations of the leakers" to be an underreported story in almost every context. In fact, quite often the motive-and-identiy of leakers is actually an even more interesting story than the leak itself.
Obviously, during those crazy last days of the Clinton administration, the press collectively agreed to ignore the ugly elephant in the living room - the illegal (And often dishonest) leaks which could have only come from Starr OIC insiders. To me, the fascinating turn events in the whole Plame story, after the initial bit of interest when Novak's column first hit, was the fact that two senior administration officials went to reporters with the story.
But, for various reasons (some good some bad), there's rarely much discussion of these stories-behind-the-stories.
