Unfair Game

Fact Check #5 and #6:

These two scenes are depictions of the fabrications that Hollywood produced due to the confidentiality of being involved with the CIA. The characters portrayed were created by the screenwriters to exemplify Valerie's various trips overseas. In her book, Valerie talks about her trips, but does not mention any specific names, dates or places.

Fact Check #8:
This clip from the movie starts out with the "16 words" from President Bush's State of the Union address which sets the stage for the major events of the Plame scandal to take place. In the movie it shows Joe calling his colleague and asking him whether the President was definitely referring to the country of Niger. His colleage tells him it's definitely Niger and Joe thinks it is ridiculous. 

In her book on page 126, Valerie explains that Joe called his colleague the morning after the State of Union address and his colleage said the president must be talking about a different country other than Niger. This is completely opposite of what the movie depicted.

There is also a time lapse in the movie. It shows Joe writing his famous "What I Didn't Find in Africa" article for The New York Times right after the State of the Union Address. In actuality, it wasn't until June -- 6 months after the "16 words" -- that Joe actually began the article. 

Fact Check #9:

Prior to this scene the movie shows President Bush saying the “16 words” leading to the Iraq war. Joe Wilson wrote his article, “What I Didn’t Find in Africa,” in response to the State of the Union Address to inform people that the President’s statement was wrong. After Joe’s article was published the White House received bad publicity, so the administration wanted to turn that around. This scene from the movie depicts “Scooter” Libby doing just that. Libby tries to figure out who Joe Wilson is in order to turn the story on him. In actuality, Libby was not the source of the leak. After a long trial, the Supreme Court found evidence that there were two sources of the leak: Karl Rove and Richard Armitage.

The second part of the scene depicts the morning that the Wilson’s discover Robert Novak’s article, in which he leaks Valerie’s full name. In her book, Valerie talks about the leak, but discusses that she knew that Novak knew who she was before the article was published. On page 140 of her book Valerie says,” A few days and several missed calls later, Novak and Joe finally spoke. Novak apologized for his “asshole” comment and then brazenly asked Joe to confirm what he had already heard from an agency source: that I worked for the CIA.”

The only thing the movie depicted accurately in this scene was her reaction to the article. She said,” I dropped the paper to the floor and tried to think clearly, but my mind was racing in 100 directions at once.”
 

Fact Check #10:

In the movie, Hollywood depicted Valerie Plame as being forcibly let go from the CIA the day her name was leaked in the Washington Post. In an interview with a representative of MovieWeb.com, Plame explained that she was still employed by the CIA until 2006 when she resigned. In the movie, it shows Plame going to work the day of the leak and being taken aside by her boss and told to pack up her bags.  Because of this misrepresentation in the movie, there is an undertone of frustration because Hollywood shows that she is immediately terminated from her position.

Interview with MovieWeb.com

Fact Check #12:

At the beginning of this clip it shows Scooter Libby in a meeting with Karl Rove. In this meeting, they are flipping through news articles. These news articles are real, however the articles weren’t published until 2007 and the movie was set in 2003. The use of these sources wasn’t valid during the time the movie was set. This scene also shows Joe getting a phone call from Chris Matthews who quotes Karl Rove saying "Wilson's wife is fair game". In Valerie's book on pg. 147, she states that this was indeed true and she felt like "..things were getting stranger all the time.."