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by susanhu
JPol has doggedly investigated Judith Miller's regurgitation of Neocon lies on the pages of The New York Times, and spotted this post at DailyKos:
Was Judith Miller a *source* of the Plame leak?
by Swopa Sat Jul 2nd, 2005 at 19:51:24 PDT See this post at Needlenose for the full breakdown, links, etc., but here's a synopsis: 1. Rove et al. have seemed confident from the start that there was a loophole that got them off the hook from having revealed classified information. 2. Matt Cooper's already testified about his conversation with Lewis Libby on July 12. Reportedly, he told Libby he'd "heard that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA" and Libby "said he had heard the same thing from the media." 3. One of the appellate court rulings stated that Fitzgerald wants to ask Miller about her contact with a government official on July 6 -- the same day Wilson went public. Did the smear campaign start that quickly ... or was she volunteering helpful information? It would explain why Miller refuses to talk. And, for that matter, why the Washington Monthly's plea not to imprison Matthew Cooper so glaringly left out Miller. Also, FWIW, Josh Marshall seems to be sniffing down the same general path. So. The New York Times wails over Judith Miller's plight while the turncoat Time Inc. turns over Cooper's notes. But perhaps the NYT doth protest too much? And not for the reasons it's shared to date about Ms. Miller's supposed non-participation in the story -- that Ms. Miller was a passive recipient of the leak, and chose not to write a story? Which leads one to ask, dare I suggest, about the ethics of the NYT. Below, snippets from Josh Marshall's post:
Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo:
Mike Isikoff's piece on Rove's role in the Plame case is now up on the Newsweek website. [Susan's Note: See Emmajoe's diary.] But the picture it paints seems a bit murkier than what Lawrence O'Donnell suggested. For those of you who journeyed down this dark alley almost two years ago, you know that a lot turns on just when in the timeline someone mentioned Plame's name, who went first, just what they knew, and various other details.
What's implicit in Isikoff's report, however, and in the Tribune too, is that the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald is after Rove for some felony arising out of the case (perjury after the fact? conspiracy?) but not the immediate and original act of leaking the name. There's one other point worth noting here. As we've seen, federal law recognizes no reporters' privilege or confidentiality. But if recollection serves, there are DOJ guidelines which say that prosecutors should exercise a great deal of discretion when trying to compel testimony from journalists. They're not supposed to do it just to tie up a few loose ends, but only if there's real and significant crime they're trying to prosecute. And before they do so, they're supposed to have exhausted all other possible ways to get at the information. Now, I'm away from my office. And it's the holiday weekend, so I can't get an expert on the phone to confirm that recollection. So leave that as a contingent assertion. If it turns out I've misrecollected this I'll let you know in a subsequent post. But I think I remember it correctly. [Y]ou'll also remember that a couple months back the usual ducks on the right were clucking about the whole investigation coming to an end -- and apparently the whole thing had come to nothing. That particular cluck never quite computed to me because Fitzgerald shouldn't be pressing matter of jailing journalists unless he thinks he's on his way to prosecuting a serious crime. So just a question: Would Fitzgerald have pushed to get Cooper and Miller in the slammer if some other party in the White House weren't in a lot of trouble? And one last question: Cooper and Miller are very different kinds of journalists, swim in very different waters. Are they really in this jam for the same reasons? Emphases mine.
Was Judith Miller a Source? | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Was Judith Miller a Source? | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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