The Matrix

Judith Miller heads to jail - but is she really a martyr to the freedom of the press?

Miller has a tendency to jump the gun, and perhaps the most famous example is her reporting of the “weapons of mass destruction” articles in the The New York Times of 2002 and 2003:

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

These were based on information from the now discredited Ahmad Chalabi who was seeking his own personal power.

http://alternet.org/mediaculture/21664/

In other words, Judith Miller’s false report helped the Administration launch a war on false information that has cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars. Is this what Freedom of the Press should support?

I’m all FOR Freedom of the Press, but I do think journalists should be held accountable for what they report. In the fake memo story of CBS 60 Minutes, we see that accountability played out as it should be. Her paper should have fired her long ago.

And Matt Cooper? Looks like a real can of worms there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/politics/11time.html?adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1121092780-crGj7rtRx590WDs3NA+PXg

This entry was posted on Monday, July 11th, 2005 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Democracy in Action, U.S. - Administrative Branch, Freedom of the Press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.