Double Super Secret Background: Karl Rove Scandal

Should The New York Times Fire Judith Miller and Apologize to Readers?

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/17/1422250

This weekend, The New York Times published its long awaited account of Judith Miller's involvement in the Valarie Plame affair. Miller, a New York Times reporter, was released from jail late last month after agreeing to testify before a grand jury investigating who in the Bush administration leaked the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.

The Times account revealed several new details about Miller's conversations with Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney"s Chief of Staff. Libby and President Bush"s Senior advisor, Karl Rove, face possible indictiments for their roles in the affair.

Miller is claiming that she doesn't know who gave her Plame's name but admitted discussing her with Libby. Miller's notes reveal that she wrote the name "Valerie Flame" in the same notebook she used to interview Libby.

The Times report also makes clear that Miller initially believed that Libby"s Lawyer, Joseph Tate was sending her a message that Libby did not want her to testify and was seeking assurances that she would exonerate Libby.

The New York Times coverage also reveals that there has been wide discontent at the paper about its handling of the story and about Miller's reporting in general.

When asked what she regretted about the newspaper's handling of the Miller matter, managing editor Jill Abramson said "The entire thing."

In 2003 the paper's executive editor Bill Keller told Miller she could no longer cover Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. Miller had written several of the key articles that claimed Iraq had an extensive weapons of mass destruction program ahead of the Iraq invasion.

Miller even wrote in her own notes "W.M.D. -- I got it totally wrong. The analysts, the experts and the journalists who covered them -- we were all wrong. If your sources are wrong, you are wrong."

In today's Washington Post, a former colleague of Miller's revealed that he refused to work with her.

Craig Pyres - who now works with the Los Angeles Times - wrote a memo to his editors five years ago and asked that his byline not appear on one piece. Pyres wrote "I do not trust her work, her judgment, or her conduct. She is an advocate, and her actions threaten the integrity of the enterprise, and of everyone who works with her.... She has turned in a draft of a story of a collective enterprise that is little more than dictation from government sources over several days, filled with unproven assertions and factual inaccuracies."

Questions are also being raised about Miller's relationship not just with Libby but with the Pentagon.

Miller revealed in her article that she had a Pentagon security clearance while embedded with US military teams hunting for banned weapons in Iraq.

Retired CBS News correspondent Bill Lynch said, "This is as close as one can get to government licensing of journalists."

Lynch went on to write "Miller violated her duty to report the truth by accepting a binding obligation to withhold key facts the government deems secret, even when that information might contradict the reportable "facts.""

On the phone to talk with us about these latest developments is Michael Isikoff and Greg Mitchell.

• Michael Isikoff, investigative reporter with Newsweek. His latest article is about Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin. It is titled "Karl Rove's Consigliore."

• Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor & Publisher. His most recent column is titled "After 'NY Times' Probe: Keller Should Fire Miller--and Apologize to Readers."