Reply #7: From the American Journalism Review (another take on Miller): [View All]

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http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3908

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But as Frank McCulloch--a former top editor at the Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee and San Francisco Examiner and one of the most astute journalists of our era--told the San Francisco Chronicle, "If the ability to protect a source is gone, inevitably sources won't talk. And everybody loses."


Miller's bold stance has provoked a decidedly mixed reaction, some of it downright hostile, even mean-spirited. There's no doubt she's a controversial figure. Miller rightly has become a poster child for the U.S. media's pathetic performance on the WMD issue. And her elbows-out style hasn't made her the most popular kid in class.


Then there's the fact that she's not protecting some noble citizen, a Karen Silkwood out to rescue the public. Nope, she has gone to jail on behalf of someone who was sleazily smearing (and perhaps endangering) a CIA operative to score cheap political points.


Some of those who think Miller should testify argue that there's a difference between safeguarding the confidentiality of a "good" source and selling out a "bad" one. That's simply a nonstarter. First of all, the ranks of valuable informants, for journalists as well as law enforcement officials, are not filled exclusively by saints. A lot of important stories are revealed by those in the belly of the beast.

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