Left In Lowell

Are Journalists Sacred?

10 Responses to “Are Journalists Sacred?”

1. No one you know Says:
   August 19th, 2005 at 12:34 pm

   I’m not going to go into a major rant here. Two quick points. First, as you pointed out but just brushed over. Judith Miller did NOT write the article outing Valerie Wilson (she hasn’t used her maiden name in years)
   Second, Unless whistle blowers etc know that they will not be “outed” by journalists that they confide in they will stop talking, meaning no one will ever know about corruption, illegal activities etc that the government, business or others are pulling over on us.
   Any journalist that jumps on a story using only one or two “unnamed” sources is a fool!
   Did the administration use Novak as a tool to punish Ambassador Wilson and warn off others? Yes, no doubt about it, but since Time has already given up its sources and the administration knows who told Novak, the jailing of Miller is to divert attention from the real issue, that Bush knowingly lied about the reasons for the war in Iraq.
   See, I told you it would be a short rant! LOL

2. Lynne Says:
   August 19th, 2005 at 12:41 pm

   No, I think Miller is still key to the investigation. The word on the judge in question is he does not do these things lightly. There’s got to be a missing piece they need from Miller, or else they would have left her alone.

   A lot of people are starting to think Miller isn’t talking NOT because of journalistic standards (especially since she’s never had them before) but because she’s saving her own butt from prosecution. I suppose that’s definitely a possibility.

   I doubt highly that any whistleblower would look at this case and go, “Well, I won’t tell a journalist my information now because Judy was jailed.” If anything, it shows that you better pick a journalist to work with that has the integrity to deserve your info, not use you for some sort of political game.

   Judy Miller is not the journalist whistleblowers go to.

   By the way, everyone in the world is speculating that the Douchebag of Liberty spilled his guts in a secret deal a long time ago, which is why he never had to deal with what Miller and Cooper did. And a lot of people speculate that he was lying under oath when he did spill.

   I dearly would love to see that guy in jail on conviction, truly I would!

3. anonypress Says:
   August 19th, 2005 at 1:07 pm

   Rice is WMD and she planned to use Bush. We invaded based on bio terror WMD. It was the bio terror that ‘never existed,’ which was the WMD policy at the CIA that Plame tried to use with Wilson’s yellowcake trip, provided courtesy of another intelligence service, to target Rice in the US.

4. No one you know Says:
   August 19th, 2005 at 1:29 pm

   Feelings about Miller aside, the bottom line is she did NOT write the article.

   So now the government can just go fishing and jail journalists?

   Miller’s jailing actually is a good thing for whistleblowers, she isn’t giving up the names.

   When Time turned over Cooper’s sources under pressure from the government, that sent the message do not trust journalists.

   Novak outed Plame, Novak is a mouthpiece for the administration, Novak is not in jail.

5. Lynne Says:
   August 19th, 2005 at 2:56 pm

   Novak “cooperated”; hence no jail time. (At least that’s pretty much the CW.)

   Yes, you can subpoena people who were witnesses or have evidence of a crime, even if they didn’t commit the crime themselves. Failure to assist an investigation with what you know IS a crime, at least, in the real world. It’s called obstruction of justice.

   Journalists didn’t think themselves part of the real world; but they are.

6. No one you know Says:
   August 19th, 2005 at 6:07 pm

   We don’t know that Novak cooperated, we don’t even know the focus of the investigation so it’s hard to say it’s obstruction!

   Again, getting back to my original point, it’s a smoke screen to keep the focus away from the fact that Bush lied and people died!

7. Lynne Says:
   August 20th, 2005 at 12:56 am

   It’s not a smokescreen at all, really. Fitzgerald is not a Bush hack. He’s actually a serious prosecutor who’s well-known for his fairness. If he sees something stinks, he goes after it full-throttle. I’m sure Rove and Co are not happy he got the case.

   Frankly, if Fitzgerald pulls hard enough on the threads, I think the whole thing - Plame, the war and the case for it and the lies, and the other stinky things this administration has done - will all unravel. Maybe. We can hope in time for the ‘06 elections!

8. No one you know Says:
   August 20th, 2005 at 5:13 pm

   I guess we’ll just leave it at we’ll agree to disagree.

   I am much more cynical than you apparently.

   I believe the leaking of Valerie Wilson’s name was a message by the Bushies to anyone in the administration who opposed his view to keep your mouth shut,

   I believe that the jailing of Judith Miller is an effort by the Bushies to intimidate what’s few journalists are left in the corporate media,

   I predict that either we’ll never “officially” know who the leaker was, or that Karl Rove will get nothing more than a slap on the wrist, if that! Didn’t Bush already backtrack from saying whoever leaked will be fired, to “if the law was broken”?

   I think they will hang their hat on the fact that Rove claims he never said Plame’s name, he called her Ambassador Wilson’s wife….gee, I wonder who that could be!

9. Lynne Says:
   August 21st, 2005 at 1:34 pm

   But the jailing of Judy has nothing to do with Bush.

   In fact, it was done by someone who brooks no partisanship. At least, by reputation. This has been written about time and again; the judge and Fitzgerald are not Bushies.

   In fact, I think Fitzgerald is their nightmare prosecutor: tough and like a bulldog with a bone when he starts working on a case. If he knows something is there, he will go after you and if he can’t nail you on the actual charge, he’ll ferret out every little act he can get you on. That’s not optimism, that’s actually common wisdom.

10. David Says:
    August 21st, 2005 at 6:43 pm

    Right on Lynne. Fitzgerald is exactly who Bush et al. didn’t want to see taking over Plamegate. And Judy Miller is a big part of the problem on this one, not the solution. And she didn’t write a story? SO WHAT??? The point has been, all along, that she has information critical to an investigation that affects national security. What she chose to publish has exactly zero to do with that.

    And I’d suggest to your debating partner that he or she check out Arianna Huffington’s extraordinary posts on Judy Miller, which make a convincing case as to what is really going on with her - very little of it has to do with maintaining the integrity of a free press. Here’s a good one to start with.

Leave a Reply