Bush's approach to the leak of the secret prisons has been nothing like his hands off approach to the Valerie Plame leak. With the Plame leak, he just raised his arms like a cowboy surrendering to the local sheriff and disclaimed any information or particular interest in the matter. The prisons are different. See this article in the Dec. 27 Washington Post, here. He apparently sees the leak of their existence as a national security threat, and has called in editors of the nation's finest newspapers to let them know his concern. He may well be applying subtle pressure. It is as though he is afraid of what the American people might do given that knowledge, for surely the mere fact of their existence cannot give any solace to terrorists or provide any information that will be of use to them.
The media hasn't done much. After a flurry of stories in the press, and barebones discussion on the major broadcast networks, it has already died down. It is as though the broadcast media cannot keep anything other than a celebrity murder trial in their heads at once. Anderson Cooper kicked Aaron Brown out by emoting on screen during the worst of Katrina, and now he emotes on every occasion. But we don't hear much from him about these issues and certainly no extensive reports on surveillance, secret sites, or even the Padilla case or how our privacy rights have diminished in recent years. Bush's sudden deep interest in leaks compared with his lighthearted treatment of the Plame affair strikes me as posturing. He is attempting to use his status to convince editors to do even less to go after the stories that are not being told about the Iraq occupation.