Former Time poobah Norman Pearlstine's new book about his role in the Valerie Plame scandal is titled Off the Record, but don't be misled: he devotes most of his time to naming names, mouthing off about his enemies, and firing back at those who criticized his cooperation with federal prosecutors.

In a rare moment of introspection about Time reporter Matt Cooper, Pearlstine concedes, "None of his editors, including this one, provided adequate guidance." But mostly, Pearlstine sticks to a valuable lesson clearly learned during his time in the corporate corner office: Blame your underlings. Pearlstine faults Cooper and his fellow reporter Viveca Novak for forcing the company's hand with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in the case.

And although he calls Cooper a "stand-up guy," Pearlstine says he botched his sources. "He was less than perfectly discreet after he got Karl Rove on the phone on Friday, July 11, 2003, to talk about Plame," Pearlstine says—Cooper e-mailed his bureau chief Michael Duffy and deputy Jay Carney about the conversation with Bush's brain. Six days later, "more than two dozen Time Inc. employees ... had had access to e-mails in which Matt had named Rove as his source."

Plus, "Matt was not only wrong to treat the conversation as if it were 'confidential,'" Pearlstine writes, "He also violated the rules for 'deep background' when he attributed the information about Valerie Plame to administration officials." Rove later complained to Pearlstine about Cooper, telling him at a conference in Aspen in September 2005, "Our ground rule was 'deep background' ... I never asked to be treated as a confidential source. Everyone would have been better off if Matt had just agreed to testify about our conversation.'"

Viveca Novak is also on the block for failing to tell her bosses about a discussion she had with Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, during which the attorney said that Rove was not Cooper's source. Pearlstine claims Novak's "sloppy work habits" relieved Rove from testifying before Fitzgerald. "As the Plame episode developed, Time itself would be embarrassed by a reporter who had become too close to a source."

The country's foremost First Amendment lawyer, Floyd Abrams, according to Off the Record, also screwed up: Pearlstine contends that Matt Cooper had such little faith in Abrams's representation of him that he scribbled "Je Suis Fucked" in his notebook while listening to Abrams make an argument in court. Cooper "was especially bothered that in meetings Abrams continually confused Libby and Rove."

In addition to mounting attacks against his own colleagues,Vanity Fair also gets the treatment: EIC Graydon Carter, for opining that media moguls should stand up for the right of journalists to protect their sources, and VF columnist Michael Wolff, who argued that Time's "refusal to name Rove had prolonged the war in Iraq and so was responsible for the deaths of thousands of American soldiers."