Saturday, October 29, 2005
Saving Themselves...
Michael Kinsley has conjured a nice little false choice on behalf of Judith Miller of the New York Times. He floated it in yesterday's Washington Post and then again on Charlie Rose's television show last night.
In both cases he's being intentionally obtuse on the press in general and Miller in particular.
Readers should let Kinsley--and the media at large--know that this dog won't fly.
In both cases he's being intentionally obtuse on the press in general and Miller in particular.
"The New York Times has started nervously backing away from Miller, like hikers trying to escape a rattlesnake. The rest of the media are fleeing without restraint. She's not a good poster child for the cause. But the cause itself remains somewhat bewildering. Why should you go to jail to protect the identity of a source who has used anonymity systematically and successfully to deceive you and your readers? Why should Scooter Libby go to jail -- involuntarily -- for having a conversation with you that you think the Constitution should protect and even encourage? Either this whole prosecution is nuts or the mainstream media view of reporters' rights is nuts. Which is it?"Hooey. Miller was in on the con, and Kinsley knows it. When Libby and Rove needed the press to smear Wilson, they called Miller, Novak and Russert. Miller went to jail not in defense of the Constitutionality of a source's confidentiality, but rather than rat on a co-conspirator--one of her fellow "aspens".
Readers should let Kinsley--and the media at large--know that this dog won't fly.
