Sunday, October 16

Point of Order

I read the Times piece on Miller, and I'm waiting for the double-secret backdoor (thanks, Alex) to open Judy's personal saga--which is being kept behind the Select wall--so I just have a couple of quick questions: if Judy doesn't remember who gave her Victoria Flame's name, what are the grounds for refusing to testify? How can you claim to be protecting a source if you don't remember the source? Doesn't this amount to saying reporters should never be required to testify because they promise confidentiality to someone, somewhere, sometime, even if it's not to the subject of an investigation? Hell, Mob guys do that.

On occasion I give my word not to reveal something or other. Should that exempt me from testifying? Aren't there First Amendment implications if I do so? Chilling effects on the social benefits of the free exchange of information, or something?

Okay, that was several questions, but I guess the real one is this: how'd the Times ever find itself in the position of having to defend Judy Miller as a "journalist"?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's a NY Mag profile by Franklin Foer, from '04, that outlines her personal saga. Very good (and lurid) reading.

As a sidenote, I'm personally not exposed to any professional gossip whatsoever about Judy Miller -- and no one from the Times has ever mentioned the name of a certain dictator of Libya whom she never slept with.

Anonymous said...

I hear he's hung like a camel.