Judith Miller : FULL OF Blind Ambition (New York Magazine)

[playahata1]

http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/index3.html

Excellent article. Ugly story. Not a pleasant person to be around. Read it and weep.

[yellowcanine]

1. So why hasn't Judy been fired yet - like other reporters who make up stuff

to enhance their stories?

[playahata1]

3. I have no earthly idea, and nothing the Times says

-- or doesn't say -- about the situation is of any help.

[central scrutinizer]

14. all the news that's fit to print

<>

[playahata1]

15. LOL!

n/t

[HFishbine]

2. Begins here

http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/features/9226/index.html

[ewagner]

4. It's all about fame......

I suspect that sweet Judith will soon reach for another Brass Ring, by writing a scathing indictment of her own sources and assume the role of a victim. That will certainly yield another fifteen minutes of fame, as well as a sizeable fortune.

[DifferentStrokes]

5. What a loser

Obvious sign of somebody who doesn't know the first thing about his or her job is bullying. That way they don't have to bother actually learning anything or doing any actual work.

At the same time she pushing everybody else around, she is sucking up to the bosses.

No one will ever know. No one will ever find out the truth about her. Right?

Sneaky as well as incompetent. I'm afraid she's a little too "public" to get away with it though.

What's really fun is this type can't handle criticism or being thought of as anything else but perfect. Their egos demand being though of not just as a good person, but a WONderful person.

The disconnect between fantasy and reality really gets to them.

[Loonman]

6. NYT is a shitty lying rag

I wouldn't wipe my ass with it.

[billybob537]

18. LOL

We used to wrap fish in it but it made the fish stink!

[cybildisobedience]

7. most interesting line in the article....

was about how Raines bent over backwards to back the Bush agenda to prove he wasn't "liberal."
Disgusting...

[playahata1]

9. Yep, that raised a red flag with me, too.

Cowards, all of them.

[cestmoi]

8. That the NYT has not fired Miller is beyond contemptible.

This story makes me ill because I remember hearing her a number of times on TV after 9/11 speak about chemical weapons and thinking that as a NYT reporter she had credibility. Well what a sucker I was.

The NYT has betrayed its readers. What Miller did was far far worse than Jayson Blair. Blair got what he deserved but Miller deserves worse. She is utterly utterly contemptible. I hope she rots in hell.

[Warpy]

10. "she screwed her way to the top"

Dunno, but I tend to discount this sort of thing, although I do know it happens.

More likely, she was somebody who cheated her way through college with recycled term papers and thought the real world involved more of the same, just writing a little fluff around the press releases she was handed by corrupt men who spotted her for one lazy sack of crap.

The point is that journalists are now all being tarred with the same brush, that they're all lazy SOBs who just hang out at their desks and wait for something to drop into their laps, and who never bother to check the facts if that "something" comes from an official source.

[playahata1]

11. Can I play a little Devil's Advocate here?

Some people might say that Miller did what she did just to get ahead as a woman operating in a hypercompetitive man's world, hence her aggressive personal and (un)professional behavior. Of course, if you, woman reporter, don't act like a man in this culture/atmosphere, you are not going to get those big stories, that access, that favor from your editors. On the other hand, if you do act like a man, you get called a bitch.

Now we must flip the script: that does not excuse Miller from violating journalistic ethics. Such violations, of course, have caused the deaths of 800 plus American soldiers and thousands of innocent Iraqis.

[cestmoi]

17. Its her lack of aggression that is at issue.

She doesn't have what it takes to be ethical. Its her willingness to be used that is contemptible.

[yellowcanine]

12. If she does get fired she will probably get hired as a Bush speech writer.

Or maybe Faux News will pick her up.

[playahata1]

13. Of course.

We've got enough print journalists clogging up the airwaves as it is.

[AP]

16. NYT search "by Judith Miller" last 30 days:

FOREIGN DESK | May 25, 2004, Tuesday   $
Russian Scientist Dies in Ebola Accident at Former Weapons Lab
By JUDITH MILLER   (NYT)     633 words

FOREIGN DESK | May 15, 2004, Saturday   $
Nuclear Monitor Sees Treaties Weakening
By JUDITH MILLER   (NYT)     818 words

FOREIGN DESK | May 14, 2004, Friday   $
Libya Halts Military Trade With North Korea, Syria and Iran
By JUDITH MILLER   (NYT)     868 words

FOREIGN DESK | May 11, 2004, Tuesday   $
Panama Joins Accord to Stem Ships' Transport of Illicit Arms
By JUDITH MILLER   (NYT)     746 words

http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?srcht=s&srchst=&vendor=&query=%22by+judith+miller%22&date_select=past30days&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

HAVE THEY NO SENSE OF DECENCY? (They're actually charging people for access to her trash!!!)

[enough]

19. Glad this one incident is getting another telling

snip>

As Miller covered MET Alpha (in Iraq), it became increasingly clear that she had ceased to respect the boundaries between being an observer and a participant. And as an embedded reporter she went even further, several sources say. While traveling with MET Alpha, according to Pomeroy and one other witness, she wore a military uniform.

When Colonel Richard McPhee ordered MET Alpha to pull back from a search mission and regroup in the town of Talil, Miller disagreed vehemently with the decision—and let her opinions be loudly known. The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz reprinted a note in which she told public-affairs officers that she would write negatively about his decision if McPhee didn’t back down. What’s more, Kurtz reported that Miller complained to her friend Major General David Petraeus. Even though McPhee’s unit fell outside the general’s line of command, Petraeus’s rank gave his recommendation serious heft. According to Kurtz, in an account that was later denied, “McPhee rescinded his withdrawal order after Petraeus advised him to do so.”

snip>

This appeared on DU quite a while back, and it seemed outrageous almost beyond belief. Interesting to see it again here.

[oasis]

20. Judith Miller, Dennis Miller, Zell Miller: Axis of mediocrity.

[TNMOM]

21. Very clever!