Jailbird Judy

Froomkin wonders about neo-conner Judith Miller's choice to go to jail too.

Miller's Big Secret
Can it be? That after all that, New York Times reporter Judith Miller sat in jail for 12 weeks to protect the confidentiality of a very senior White House aide -- even though the aide repeatedly made it clear he didn't want protecting?

That somehow Miller was more intent on keeping their conversations secret than the aide was?


...
So what was Miller doing in jail? Was it all just a misunderstanding? The most charitable explanation for Miller is that she somehow concluded that Libby wanted her to keep quiet, even while he was publicly -- and privately -- saying otherwise. The least charitable explanation is that going to jail was Miller's way of transforming herself from a journalistic outcast (based on her gullible pre-war reporting) into a much-celebrated hero of press freedom.

Note to reporters: There is nothing intrinsically noble about keeping your sources' secrets. Your job, in fact, is to expose them. And if a very senior government official, after telling you something in confidence, then tells you that you don't have to keep it secret anymore, the proper response is “Hooray, now I can tell the world” -- not “Sorry, that's not good enough for me, I need that in triplicate.” And if you're going to go to jail invoking important, time-honored journalistic principles, make sure those principles really apply.

There still seems like there something bubbling below the surface here.

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This page contains a single entry by Seth A. published on September 30, 2005 10:57 PM.

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