Jacob's Politics

Steve Clemons on Judith Miller

Entry posted by Jacob Matthan at my Blog on TPM cafe at 11:00 on 5th Sept. 2005

Steve Clemons has just blogged his opinion on Judith Miller.

I wrote a series of letters to The Editors of New York Times...

13th March 2005:

Dear Editor,

I read with great interest your feature today, March 13th 2005

Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged News

By DAVID BARSTOW and ROBIN STEIN

Considering the Judith Miller / Ahmed Chalabi axis, is it not just a case of the pot calling the kettle black?

And where is your star reporter NOW?

17th March 2005:

Dear Editor,

Interesting how you covered in your Editorial of today the issue of the Chinese journalist who is being held incommunicado

"A Chinese Journalist in Peril"

It may have been more relevant if you had compared how much further the Chinese have to go to catch up with the USA, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, AND THE SPECIAL TORTURE FLIGHTS taking prisoners to Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan,...

But, of course, The New York Times editors, correspondents and reporters like Judith Miller may not have been paid, like Armstrong Williams and male prostitute James Guckert and others, to report on these rather painful home truths?
7th July 2005:
Dear Editor,

I must compliment the New York Times on its absolutely great Editorial "Judith Miller Goes to Jail" which appeared online today.

I really laughed myself into the ground.

I have never seen such brilliant comedy writing as when I used to read the MAD magazine in the mid sixties.

Keep up the good work and you will have us all buying your newspaper to have a jolly good laugh.

As they say in the Reader's Digest

"Laughter is the Best Medicine".

Judith Miller a Reporter?

I was under the impression that she was the New York Times "woman who engaged in intercourse for money" who kept Ahmed Chalabhi happy so that she could get a good story for your comedy paper!!

Is she now doing time in jail for her similar activities with someone other than Chalabhi?

19th July 2005:

Dear Editor,

Sam Smith could not have hit the nail on the head any harder than he did. He has very exactly shown that Judith Miller was not being a correspondent on this issue as she wrote no article about the matter.

She is protecting a felon and for that deserves exactly what she got, to sit in jail till she realises what she has done.

The New York Times, in trying to protect Judith Miller, is only protecting its own interests as it was the newspaper that used Judith Miller and her "source", Ahmed Chalabhi, to drum up the support for an illegal war.

The New York Times is also a felon in this instance. saying a mere sorry is no answer. The Senior Editors of New York Times need also to serrve their time if "journalism" and "journalists" are to be done justice.

22nd July 2005:

Dear Editor,

I read with great interest your Editorial, "A Jar of Red Herrings", published on July 19, 2005.

What are thoose great principles that Judith Miller's that she stands for?

1. "...as is her willingness to accept the legal consequences of her principled stand" -

Where was this editor when Judith Miller was parroting Ahmed Chalabi's vile and false information?

2. "It's up to the reporter and editor to determine whether information given under a promise of confidentiality is reliable." -

But the cream of all the exceedingly amusing statements in your editorial when it comes to Judith Miler was:

3. "Journalists should not tailor their principles to the politics of the moment."

Thanks for the humour.

posted by Jacob Matthan @ 20:00