Judith Miller backbenched ..NYT inquiry going on..re:WMD reporting

[SoCalDem]

http://slate.msn.com/id/2095394/

Shafer wants NYT to explain Miller's faulty WMD reporting
Slate
Judith Miller has been back-benched by the New York Times on the WMD story, but the paper still needs to explain her faulty reporting, says Jack Shafer. If Michael Massing's NYROB piece on WMD hype is right, "something went dreadfully wrong at West 43rd Street," writes Shafer. "Especially given Miller's public proclamation that her WMD work met the highest standards of her profession, readers have a right to know: What went wrong at the Times?" Miller Time (Again)
The New York Times owes readers an explanation for Judith Miller's faulty WMD reporting.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Thursday, Feb. 12, 2004, at 2:53 PM PT



Judy's turn to cry

Michael Massing flushes New York Times reporter Judith Miller out of her spider hole this week with "Now They Tell Us," a 7,000-word analysis in the New York Review of Books about the press corps' failure to see through the Bush administration's weapons of mass destruction hype. Writes Massing:

In the period before the war, US journalists were far too reliant on sources sympathetic to the administration. Those with dissenting views—and there were more than a few—were shut out. Reflecting this, the coverage was highly deferential to the White House. This was especially apparent on the issue of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction—the heart of the President's case for war. Despite abundant evidence of the administration's brazen misuse of intelligence in this matter, the press repeatedly let officials get away with it.

Massing levels special scorn at Miller, whose WMD journalism published before the Iraq war, as he footnotes, elicited critical reviews in the Nation, Editor & Publisher Online, AJR, and CJR, and by me in Slate. Responding to Massing's criticism that she channeled the administration's spotty WMD case, Miller blames U.S. intelligence for the discrepancies between what she reported about Iraqi WMD before the war and the latest findings of the weapons hunters. "The fact that the United States so far hasn't found WMD in Iraq is deeply disturbing," she tells Massing. "It raises real questions about how good our intelligence was. To beat up on the messenger is to miss the point."

mush more

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. It's about time someone put the spotlight

on this witch.

Miller blames U.S. intelligence for the discrepancies between what she reported about Iraqi WMD before the war and the latest findings? Ah excuse me? This woman mislead the public and was a WH shill, who depended on folks like Chalabi for her disinformation and she now she wants to put the blame on US Intelligence? Seems shes got more balls than brains, but that's not saying much is it?

I hope there is a nice cold bench waiting for her at the Hague.

[0007]

15. Ms. Miller is a witch working for the wicked crime cabal.

No doubt about it. An example, Chalabi has yet to be a credible source of any kind.
Chalabi should be treated like the criminal he is, instead of a dignitary.

The New York Times must demand a retraction.

[farmbo]

2. As the monkey to Cheney's organ grinder, her stories' wrote themselves'

She always had an 'exclusive', which invariably came laced with quotes from 'administration-officials-speaking-on-the-condition-of-anonymity', with sexed-up quotes about sinister green fogs and mushroom clouds. Never mind none of it was true.

All in all, the NYT was better served by Jason Blair than Judith Miller.

Now, sit back and compare the fates of the two.

[JNelson6563]

3. Excellent news

I hope she is publicaly humiliated and that her career is ruined.

Julie

[fishnfla]

4. good read

thanks for the link

[CaptainMidnight]

5. Judith Miller = CFR

Council on Foreign Relations

'nuff said.

Captain Mike

[hang a left]

14. Please for goodness sakes, WAKE UP!!

DUers, the following is a very short list of members of the elite organizations of just the New York Times. Following that I am gonna post some important people in politics that have either dual or triple membership in these elite organizations. There are hundreds upon hundreds more.

Leslie Howard Gelb CFR, Trilateral Comm Columnist, New York Times

Flora Lewis CFR, Trilateral Comm Senior Columnist, New York Times, Paris

Thomas L. Friedman Bilderberger, CFR, Tri Comm Foreign Affairs Colomnist, New York Times

Craig R. Whitney CFR, Writer, New York Times

Steven Weisman CFR, Editorial Board Member, New York Times

Michael M. Weinstein CFR, Editorial Columnist, New York Times

David D. Unger CFR, New York Times

Mark Uhlig CFR, Writer, New York Times

Cyrus Leo Sulzberger, Bilderberger, Frm. Columnist, New York Times

Robert B. Semple Jr., CFR, Columnist, New York Times

Elaine F. Sciolino CFR, Writer, New York Times

Jack Rosenthal, CFR, Asst. Managing Editor, New York Times

A. M. Rosenthal CFR, Columnist, New York Times

John Bertram Oakes CFR, Fmr. Senior Editor, New York Times

Winthrop R. Munyan CFR, New York Times

Karl Ernest Meyer CFR, Editorial Board Member, New York Times

Mitchel Ramsey Levitas CFR, Senior Editor, New York Times

Clifford Krauss CFR, Writer, New York Times

Warren M. Hoge CFR, Assistant Managing Editor, New York Times Magazine

James L. Greenfield CFR, Editorial Board Member

Michael R. Gordon CFR, Correspondent, New York Times, Pentagon

Ann Crittenden CFR, Fmr. Reporter, New York Times

James B. Brooke CFR, Writer, New York Times

Richard Bernstein Bilderberger, Book Critic, New York Times

GEORGE HERBERT W. BUSH, CFR, TRILATERAL COMMISSION

JOHN DIEBOLD, BILDERBERGER, CFR

FRANK C. CARLUCCI III, CFR, TRILATERAL COMMISSION

RICHARD B. CHENEY, CFR, TRILATERAL COMMISSION

ALAN GREENSPAN, CFR, TRILATERAL COMMISSION

COLIN LUTHER POWELL, BILDERBERGER, CFR

HENRY ALFRED KISSINGER, BILDERBERGER, CFR, TRILATERAL COMMISSION

BRENT SCOWCROFT, BILDERBERGER, CFR, TRILATERAL COMMISSION

GEORGE SOROS, BILDERBERGER, CFR, TRILATERAL COMMISSION

PAUL DEAN WOLFOWITZ, BILDERBERGER, CFR, TRILATERAL COMMISSION

This is so an incomplete list, it would blow your mind the members of these elite groups.

[9215]

24. These orgs using words like "Council" or "Commission"

in their names is what galls me. They have an official sounding name to lead the public to think they are part of the government. The book "Trilateralism: Elite Planning for World Management" is a must read to see how the trade based approach to foreign policy is used to rationalize doing business with corrupt governments. The main rationalization is that trading with a country will foster democracy even though this has not worked in any country to my knowledge.

The book by Christopher Hitchen's "The Trial of Henry Kissinger" shows the hidden agenda of Trilateralism: private profit irregardless of the public cost.

[revcarol]

6. I remember the "Madam Smallpox" story....

and the smallpox scare that enveloped the nation; how we were at risk because smallpox had no cure, and we had to quick-rush-at-great-expense develop vaccine, and all first-responders HAD to take it, and if they were immune deficient because of some disease or chronic condition, they were gonna DIE....And how the Patriot Act allowed for quarantining whole cities and states (militarily confining them in a ghetto) and how the administration said this would be for our own safety...

Tell me again how many millions of $$ we spent because smallpox was supposedly being weaponized.

The NYT should cashier her and be made to print retractions of her stories every day for a year AND THEN print retractions of every editorial that was based on lying information of the administration.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. I love this part, it ties together Miller and the OSP

Numerous questions need to be explored. Some are narrow issues, like how the administration came to rely on forged documents to make the case that Iraq was trying to import uranium for its presumed nuclear weapons program. Others are broader, like the role played by a new special office in the Pentagon that applied its own interpretations to the information and analyses generated by the traditional intelligence agencies. A critical question is what information was presented to the president in the run-up to war.


Miller reported directly to Rummie. She was an inbed in Iraq under Rummie's protection, looking for the WMD's she had told everyone were there. They came up empty handed. The real Madame Smallpox is Judith Miller.

[Jacobin]

8. Check her deposit slips

She's on the payroll of the black ops goons headed by Dickless Cheney

[NNN0LHI]

9. She should have been fired a long time ago

NYT reporter Jason Blair got all the headlines when they fired him for filing false stories, but this sicko Judith Miller should have been canned months ago. She helped cause thousands to die for nothing. Blair didn't. She is truly evil and deserves to burn in hell if there actually is such a place.

Don

[kodi]

10. she was compromised by cia long ago

that the times editorial staff did not rein her in and demand better verification for her absurdities marks them as much as miller.

however, it was miller's refusal to be anythng more than a conduit for government disinformation policies that reflects on her obvious whoredom.

it is one thing to allegedly "report the facts," but when there is not a scintilla of evidence in support for such alleged facts, then any proclaimation of journalistic integrity by her is as bogus as her stories.

[JackRiddler]

11. Can hardly believe it

Like a little Christmas present! Thanks.

[burythehatchet]

12. oh

yeah!

[burythehatchet]

13. To beat up on the messenger is to miss the point."

baaaaahahahahaha!!!! BAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

So she just admitted that her job is to convey what the government wants her to report. Journalistic integrity at its pinnacle. She should be featured on that show Pinnacle which is about people who have risen to the top of their profession.

[Skittles]

16. "To beat up on the messenger is to miss the point" ????????

I beg to differ. When the messenger is WHORING FOR ONE POINT OF VIEW, that *IS* the f***ing point. Ms. Miller, YOU AND YOUR FELLOW WHORES HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS.

[Orangeone]

17. During the Anthrax

scare, didn't she receive a fake Anthrax letter? I always suspected she mailed it to herself to get more publicity.

[otohara]

18. Damn You Ahmed Chalbi

DAMN YOU ...

[WilliamPitt]

19. *cough* Ahmad Chalabi *cough* sourcing *cough cough*

[alcuno]

20. "How good OUR intelligence was..."

Who is the "our?" Elements of the government and media who were in cahoots together?

Shouldn't it be "their" intelligence? I mean if you're being impartial and all.

[BillZBubb]

21. The War Whore gets her just desserts?

Judith Miller is a piece of right wing slime. She is in large part responsible for thousand of deaths. Will the "Times" really do anything to punish her?

[9215]

22. Now we wonder why

70% of Americans falsely believed that Saddam was behind 9/11.

The Press is failing in its duty to inform the public and we are in a quagmire in Iraq with young people dying as a result.


I sure hope that they can improve things in house, but I don't think it will have any longterm effect. Things will gravitate back to the way they were.

[hang a left]

23. The press in not failing in it's duty, it's doing it's duty all right.

The "press" is one of them! HELLO. They built this criminal cabal up, not it is taking it down. Only to replaced by the chosen ones whom will finish us off.


edit for sp

[9215]

26. Are you a conspiracy theorist or

something ((Just kidding)).

I guess I hold out hopes that, at least to some degree, these rags have to maintain their credibility. If they are pumping out crap that is shown to be as off base as Miller's stuff they face a big problem like any business that sells shody goods.

For sure it takes a crisis like Iraq with people pointing fingers to shake them up and that is the truly sad part. There are journalists who fight against the "corporatization" pressure, but in the past few decades they have been swamped by the media whores.

The Press does, on occassion, piss on the tree they so recently fertilized.

[hang a left]

29. "Are you a conspiracy theorist or something"

That would be me. (Smiles back atcha). I don foil for every occasion.

[AP]

25. Remember, Judith Miller was one of the last people to talk to the British

guy who committed suicide.

They were all lying.

[9215]

27. Yep, David Kelly. There could be some

coercion going on here to. It is possible. Miller did have an anthrax scare at one point as well. I believe she recieved an envelope with white powder in it, but did not contract the disease.

But don't quote me on that.


More likely I think she is a victim of mediawhoreitis. That is when you get nice with your "client" or you are refused access. This process went into high gear in the 80's with Reagan refusing to invite spirited critics to White House functions.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

28. You mean David Kelly, who was probably 'suicided'. n/t

[grasswire]

30. goddammit

Susan Schmidt is still writing for The Washington Post, as is Cece Connolly. Kit Seelye is still writing. Gerth is still writing. Isikoff is still writing.

I believe it's time for the news profession to stiffen its credentialing process and get some disciplinary measures in place.

[DU GrovelBot]

31. ## Support Democratic Underground! ##

RUN C:\GROVELBOT.EXE
 
This week is our first quarter 2004 fund drive.
Please take a moment to donate to DU. Thank you
for your support.
 
- An automated message from the DU GrovelBot

Click here to donate.

[fishnfla]

32. must read kick

fisnfla grovelbot

[mike1963]

33. What is it with the Millers? Judith, Zell, Dennis, Bill

(Bill is a fundy neighbor of mine)
:D

No offense to any DU Millers!

[JPace]

34. I remember her being on t.v. often talking about

Saddam and his stockpiles of killing
poisons and germs. It was really scary
at a time when we were all edgy because
of 9/11. She seemed so small and lady
like and sincere....and believable.

Was she really connected to the WH?

[SoCalDem]

35. There is a method to how they pick their "spokespeople"

The women are often demure looking, small, usually blonde, cheerleaderish-demeanor.. They speak fast..they smile a lot..they interrupt and talk over the opposition.. they appear to have command of the facts.. they speak in jargon..slogan..catch phrase style..

They choose this kind of woman purposely.. Women can "trust" them, because they look "soccer-mom-ish"..or like their friend in high school or like their kid's pre-school teacher..

The men think they are cute, and would not mind dating them.. Some of them have kids, but you will never see them speaking out while pregnant.. They are supposed to be asexual, and yet approachable..

[NNN0LHI]

36. Seen her on Arron Browns show one night talking about the "mobile labs"

Brown asked her if they were really labs for making nasty stuff. She responded almost giddily that "oh no, they are not labs, she almost whispered, they are actually factories on wheels to make deadly stuff". She had a great big smile on her face like a skunk eating shit. I really can't stand her.

Don

[Cat Atomic]

37. Did she go to messenger school or journalism school?

I think most people were under the impression that she was a journalist, not a "messenger".