Op-Ed Column: Judy Miller Lectures on Journalistic Standards

Think Progress caught a choice quote made over the weekend by disgraced (and disgraceful) former New York Times reporter Judith Miller:

"I'm worried about bloggers. (A post) starts as a rumor and within 24 hours it’s repeated as fact.” Miller said blogs “don’t post corrections when they learn that what they have posted is wrong,” but added that she was “glad to welcome them as long as they agree to the standards.”

Judith Miller, a former participant of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), which covertly sought to sell the Iraq invasion to U.S. citizens and the world, has already proven her glib remorselessness at having advertised - in the guise of journalism - this administration's pre-invasion WMD propaganda.

Miller's petulant "correction" came two years later, uttered on her way out the door of The New York Times (our Paper of Record that oversaw "Little Miss Run Amok"): "WMD - 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. I did the best job that I could."

The only truth to this statement may lie in that last line. Corrupted as she had become by the unchecked power she wielded at The Times, maybe she did the best job she could: stenography of the first order. Regardless, shirking all traditional journalistic standards, Miller relied almost solely on those who had a direct stake in selling the war - Pentagon officials and Iraqi defectors and exiles, including Ahmad Chalabi, a convicted criminal, known liar and neocon puppet who hoped to land a position in the reconstructed Iraqi government.

Additionally, in reference to her concern about bloggers presenting fiction as fact - obvious irony notwithstanding - she fails to make a necessary distinction. On the whole, progressive bloggers write opinions and promulgate information that are based on fact, even if, yes, what they present might also happen to support their ideology - one that tends to embrace human rights, the rule of law and common sense. While the vast majority of right-wing bloggers peddle opinions and information steeped in an ideology - one unconcerned with human rights, the rule of law and common sense - that blithely eschews facts.

Such distinctions are critical. It's time "liberal" journalists like Miller stop throwing the blogger out with the bathwater. As with mainstream journalists, and human beings of all endeavors, some bloggers are more capable and responsible than others. The best of the progressive bloggers, large and small, for instance, demand as much from themselves as they do of the mainstream media and the current administration to which they have worked so diligently to give oversight.

Case in point is Judith Miller. It would be unfair if bloggers, in turn, were to blame each of her mainstream colleagues for her Iraq WMD fiasco. Though national media stories exhibit shortcomings daily (without which there would be no need for this site), Miller's journalistic transgressions went far beyond the pale.

In her statement on bloggers, she reveals either an ignorance of what is actually happening in the blogosphere or a calculated antipathy toward those participants, myself included, who exposed her egregious reporting on WMD in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Miller should be grateful that any self-respecting newspaper still agrees to print her words. There should be no second acts for journalists who knowingly peddle war propaganda; hers has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Both Iraqi and American.

Don't talk to us about journalistic "standards," Judy. In fact, don't talk to us. We have work to do.

Comments

[MediaBloodhound]

Judy Miller Lectures on Journalistic Standards

[scuttle]

Waaaaaay beyond belief....unmitigated gall, chutzpah.....that not so rare combo platter of arrogance, ignorance and hubris....no wonder Judy fit in so well with the neocons.
Could somebody please get her e-mail address and send your post directly to her?
The woman is like much of the crew that was just voted out: shameless.

[Mark T]

Great you caught this. Best blog entry I have read all day. Unbelievable.

[MediaBloodhound]

Thanks for your kind words, Mark. Glad you enjoyed it.