E&P: Judith Miller's Tale Under Scrutiny--At Her Own Paper

[RSchewe]

(...)

Here we have a hint of the "split" at The Times. On one level is the top management -- Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. and Bill Keller -- who endorse Miller's version that she was actually "reporting" on Plame in July 2003 and her view of herself as valiant defender of the First Amendment. A Times spokeswoman summed up the corporate bottom line last week: "Judy is an intrepid, principled, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has provided our readers with thorough and comprehensive reporting throughout her career."

On another level, some of the paper's elite reporters -- not to mention some Times columnists -- suggest in various pieces on the Plame affair that they are somewhat skeptical of her claim that she was contemplating writing a story on Plame in early summer 2003. The issue is critical because, if she was not actually talking to people about a story, what was she talking to them about?

(...)

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001010779