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October 2, 2005
It's Miller Time
Poor Judy: She's hasn't even been out of jail for a full 24 hours and already everyone is asking: What the hell was that whole thing about?
A lot of folks are confused about what exactly compelled Judy to go to jail. (The Note writes, "If you are confused about the circumstances of Miller's release from jail yesterday, you are not alone." On CSpan this morning, Matt Cooper said he found the whole affair "quite confusing.") The very waiver that she just received from Libby is the same one offered to her (and taken by Matt Cooper) months ago. Why didn't she take it then and why did she take it now? Did she go to jail...for nothing at all? At some point, we're all going to want to find out what was not okay with the first waiver and what was okay with this one (because most of us can't seem to figure it out).
Mickey Kaus quotes the NYT piece from this morning ("Other people involved in the case have said Ms. Miller did not understand that the waiver had been freely given") and says: "That has to be disingenuous. You mean she was sitting in jail all because she never bothered to inquire and find out that the waiver that would free her was genuine?"
Wonkgirl has her own take on it: "Fellow source-hoarder Matt Cooper's thrilling tale of a last-minute reprieve had seemed cinematic at the time. Good stuff, we thought, but what's a book about being a journalist martyr without sleeping on cement and not being able to watch CNN? When Miller stayed clammed up while Cooper sang, people wondered what she knew and now it's clear: She knows the dollar value of minor humiliation and anecdotes about prison laundry."
Part of it may be that she just didn't think that Libby's original waiver was good enough (or at least wasn't as confident in it as Cooper apparently was) and that she wanted something a bit more personal (we assume that jail turned out to be plenty personal enough for Judy). More odd is that it also seems like she and her lawyer didn't even try too hard to get that waiver. On Aug. 2, Adam Liptak wrote in the New York Times that "Judy and her lawyers have declined to answer the question of whether they have done anything at all to contact the source and try to obtain a satisfactory waiver."
Howard Kurtz provides a great piece today on the subject that's well worth reading in its entirety and he ponders, "Could it really have turned on that? Say you really, really mean it?" You can almost hear Howard scratching his head at his desk as he writes his piece. His opening line tips off the piece's tone: "Judy Miller has just spent three months in an Alexandria jail, so I'm not going to criticize her."
Dan Froomkin does a great analysis on it and asks, "So what was Miller doing in jail? Was it all just a misunderstanding?"
Also this doozy from Froomkin: "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."
Mediacrity asks "Did Judy Miller make a fool of her supporters?"
According to the LATimes, the tough prison conditions may have been a factor, too (you think?). The lack of CNN and the Internet certainly pushed over the brink, too. Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. was kind enough to serve her a steak dinner last night. No, we don't think she simply trying to find a way to make it to the Coldplay concert tonight.
Kurtz says that "Miller's motivation was that prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald was making noises about either charging her with criminal contempt or impaneling another grand jury, which could have extended her stay in Alexandria. But I'm glad, for her sake, that she's out."
FishbowlNY makes some good points: "For a change, there are mysteries: it takes a year to get a waiver from Scooter Libby? Are these people mentally challenged? No, they are not. Which means that one of two things happened: (1) Miller blew off Libby's many offers to release her of responsiblity in order to make a point; or (2) Libby had privately given her very good reason to make her doubt the veracity of his public claims...
"So. As the Times account reads, Libby's coming on all "Dude, what's you're deal? I told you to go ahead and testify," and Judy's all "You are so full of it, you so did not."
Naturally, the majority of our confusion stems from the fact that this is a grand jury case, so secrecy (which leads to confusion which leads to speculation which leads to the dark side...) is the name of the game.
Next up: Grand jury indictments?
[Fishbowl DC]
Judith Miller: "I Am The Nelson Mandela of Journalism"
Washington — Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who at times has claimed she chose jail to protect her sources, and at other times claimed to be a big fan of martyrs such as the biblical apostle Paul, Martha Stewart, and the career-resurrection through martyrdom technique testified yesterday to a federal grand jury investigating a high-profile security leak.
Ms. Miller, 57, who spent 85 days behind bars, was let out of prison Thursday after she agreed to testify about her source — Vice-President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
But the mystery at the heart of her case -- why she chose to go to and remain in prison even after Libby had already twice released her from the confidentiality agreement -- remains unsolved. Mr. Libby's lawyer said that release had been made more than a year ago and in writing.
Ms. Miller said yesterday, “In that dark, dank hopelessness that steals the consciousness and slowly starves a righteous soul thirsting for freedom from torturous confines, I recalled the last wise words of Obi-Wan Kenobi to comfort me in my darkest of lonely, weeping hours. "Strike me down, and I shall grow more powerful than you could ever imagine." Yea, I have nailed myself to the cross of the 4th Amendment, and the hour of my freedom draws nigh."
Ms. Miller also attempted to draw parallels between her 85 days spent voluntarily at a minimum security air-conditioned facility in New York, and Nelson Mandela, who was shackled in a 4 by 6 foot cell between 1964 and 1990 for opposing South Africa's violent aparteid regime.
Miller claimed that the first confidentiality agreement release which granted her the right to testify and then a second personalized release were "just form letters" and therefore "insincere." Third and fourth journalist confidentiality releases were "in the form of a personal letter and most important, a telephone conversation, a telephone call to me at the jail,” Ms. Miller said yesterday. “I concluded from all of this that my source was practically begging me to testify and I had no choice, I had to leave my minimum security detentional cell, which I did on Thursday. ”
Mr. Libby's lawyers did not return calls for comment. Cheney's Chief of Staff, Lewis Libby, however, claimed to be "very relieved" that Ms. Miller had finally decided to leave the facility because "it was making me look bad."
Mr. Libby reported that friends, relatives, reporters, and numerous strangers had been calling his office on a weekly and sometimes daily basis demanding to know why he was forcing Miller to remain in prison. "I wasn't!" he exclaimed. "When the scandal broke, I had the lawyers send a letter to approximately 328 White House journalists relinquishing them of previous confidentiality agreements. Naming a covert agent is a felony, and we all just wanted it to be over. But Miller insisted on going to prison, and she didn't even author the Plame story! We even sent her a second letter personally releasing her from the confidentiality obligation, but she said she didn't believe I 'really meant it' and wouldn't leave her cell. Finally, what else was I supposed to do? I actually called the jail and had the wardens patch me through and I told her I absolutely unequivocably absolved her of the confidentiality agreement and to please, please, please leave. My wife still hasn't forgiven me though. Everyone is still blaming me like its my fault!"
Dan Froomkin of The Washington Post says one explanation for this behavior is that “going to jail was Miller's way of transforming herself from a journalistic outcast (based on her gullible prewar reporting) into a much-celebrated hero of press freedom.” Miller had written several front page articles for the New York Times describing in great detail Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and nuclear programs (now known to be non-existant) in the months before the Iraq invasion. The New York Times editors later apologized to readers for these blatant administration-fed untruths in its prewar coverage, on May 26, 2004.
| By Joshua Daniels | 11:39 AM