Where She Belongs
Before the recent bombings in London, the big political story around Washington, D.C. was that journalist Judith Miller of the New York Times was sentenced to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative's name to the media, via "Douchebag for Liberty" Robert Novak. In-crowd "journalists" like Andrea Mitchell (that's "Mrs. Alan Greenspan" to those of you following along at home), subbing this week for Chris Matthews as host of MSNBC's moribund "Hardball" political gasbag show, moaned for days about how journalists need a federal shield law to protect them from violating a source's confidentiality.Never mind the fact that it appears that Judy Miller is trying to protect Karl Rove, the sleaziest liar ever to work at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Never mind that the outing of CIA agent Valarie Plame, who worked in weapons of mass destruction and was hence a vital tool in the war against terror, as a cheap political stunt is an act bordering on treason (thanks to a law brought to us by George Bush I).
Judith Miller does not deserve the benefit of a federal law shielding journalists, because Judith Miller is not a journalist. I don't know exactly what she is, for sure, but she's about as much a journalist as Jeff Gannon.
As the architect of the "aluminum tubes" story that helped to get us into this disastrous war in Iraq, as the primary mouthpiece of embezzler, liar, and friend of Iran like Ahmad Chalabi, and as a writer with a proven track record of misinformation (or is that disinformation?), she very definitely is not a journalist.
Judith Miller is a criminal. And as a criminal, she gets to sleep exactly where she should tonight: In a jail cell.
Think this is over the top? Check out this Daily Kos post, which sums up Judy's track record over the last several years.
There is something deeply wrong with American media.
9 Comments:
I think the most troubling thing is that if she were protecting a liberal like Kerry or Edwards, there would probably be significant pressure on her from the White House.
A shame is that Rove, the architiec of much of our problems, is getting an easy way out.
I think that a Pullitzer-prize winning journalist with a few decades of credentials at the Old Grey Lady is a "journalist".
The fact that in this specific factual circumstnace she is "protecting" Karl Rove is wholly beside the point. The editorial position taken by the NY Times is an important one. Who it happens to be protecting is not important to the NY Times.
Are you seriously suggesting the NY Times is acting improperly on this and Time Warner's position is the corrrect one to take?
I'm way left of you on the political spectrum Erik - but this rant appears to me to be misdirected. Ms. Miller deserves roses - not bricks.
Ms. Miller is clearly an "operative" or an "asset" of something, but that something is not the New York Times.
The link in my original post suggests a consistent pattern of acting as the mouthpiece for PNAC neo-conservatives, exactly the jackanapes who have blood all over their hands regarding the Iraq debacle.
Send her roses, if you wish. I'll be over here smiling and hoping she has an uncomfortable bed.
As an addendum, I think the anonymity of sources can be useful when it's protecting corporate or governmental whistleblowers, and I think (having not fully researched the issue) that I could get behind a federal shield law for journalists.
But Judith Miller and the rest of the corpulent, increasinly irrelevant Washington press elite were played like a fiddle by the White House on this one, just like they were played on the Aluminum Tubes. Just like they were played with the "Let's hope the Smoking Gun doesn't come in the form of a Mushroom Cloud."
These are the lies that have killed nearly 2,000 Americans and several times as many Iraqis.
Jail is the most comfortable of places I'm happy to see Judith Miller rotting in today.
Oh, and did I mention that leaking the identity of a covert CIA agent (working in weapons of mass destruction, no less!) is a crime?
I don't think Time did the right thing, but if this ends up heading where a lot of us hope it's heading, I can't say I'll hold it against them.
leaking the name intentionally knowing the agent was covert is.
And that isn't the case with Plame
In other words:
"That depends on what the definition of is is."
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