The Trials of Judith Miller (Plame outing was not a crime)

Granddaddy Long Legs ^

[cchandler]

I've written about the mainstream media's reaction to the Valerie Plame Outing before in a post titled, Another Mainstream Media Catch 22. In the article, I explained that the press chose a self-destructive, misleading position to take regarding the Joe Wilson/Niger Yellowcake/Valerie Plame story. I suggested that they would have a similar choice to make in the way it handled the Newsweek/Guantanamo/Koran Flushing story. And I suggested that the liberal media would once again choose allegory over concrete truth. I wrote: The mainstream media (MSM) already got caught in a similar Catch-22 regarding the outing of CIA agent (and wife of former Clinton-administration Ambassador Joe Wilson) Valerie Plame. Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine were made to be heroes who stood unwavering against the law-breaking Bush administration, only to face possible jail time for selflessly protecting their sources. The collective MSM painted them as martyrs, and crusaded for legislation that would protect journalists from being forced to reveal their unnamed, unproven sources. The choir compared this attack on journalists with actions of totalitarian governments and denied that journalists should be culpable for federal agent outing crimes.

As the story continued to unfold, it appeared that Joe Wilson had been the liar, and that the outing of his wife, Valerie Plame, wasn't a crime. All that was needed at the time to get the two journalists off the hook was for the media to publicize the correction. But a correction would negate all the rhetoric that had been written and broadcast throughout the past year. Plus, Bush was starting to trail Kerry in the polls on patriotic issues....

[cchandler]

I'm tired of reading about how brave Judith Miller is. While I respect that she's keeping her word to her source, this martyr act needs to die like disco.

[Tallguy]

this martyr act needs to die like disco.

There's a great tagline in there somewhere!