A Hard Day's Night: Miller Appears on Panel Hours After Pullout at 'Times'

By: Miki Johnson Despite her rather eventful day, former New York Times reporter Judith Miller made good on her agreement to appear on a panel tonight at the $375-a-plate Media Law Resource Center annual dinner in Manhattan. Miller explained her decision to leave the Times today, and also commented on coverage of her case, saying she wishes more in the media had looked at the journalistic issues involved, not the who-said-what-to-whom.

She also said that she felt the Times could have done a better job of covering her decision to finally testify in the Plame case after spending 85 days in jail; that the media could have covered her time in jail more thoroughly rather than just editorialize about it; and she revealed that she had counted on taking "a break" after leaving jail that she "never got."

ABC newsman Terry Moran subbed for Diane Sawyer as moderator. Others on the panel included Miller's former co-defendant in the Plame leak case, Time magazine's Matt Cooper; Rep. Mike Pence, one of the authors of the proposal federal shield law for reporters; and James Taricani, a TV reporter who like Miller was jailed recently in a battle over a source.

Moran opened the proceedings by commenting that people often say that one of the best things that can happen to a reporter is "you become the story" so you find out what it's like to be on the other end. This naturally led him to ask Miller about her experience.

As she does in her "farewell" letter published in her former paper on Thursday, Miller said the main reason for her quitting was because she didn't feel that becoming the story was such a good idea for someone at the Times.

Moran asked if she felt there was a chill wind now blowing that would cause sources to pull back from reporters. Miller considers the overuse of blanket waivers and the fear people have about talking with reporters "frightening developments," but said in her case in the future, she hoped her sources would be assured "I am willing to protect them."

Cooper, who said he's ready to testify even at the risk of having his character questioned, also promised to continue protecting his sources.

"If they want to go after confidential sources, we'll go back and fight this case," he said.

Miller explained that staying in jail would have been an "act of self-martyring" after she had received the personal waiver from I. Lewis Libby.

Asked how a newspaper should cover its own reporter getting embroiled in a legal case over sourcing, she said that all a newspaper can do is acknowledge it has "a dog in this fight? and move on. It should not affect the way it covers the story if its own reporter is involved. (The Times has been criticized, from within and outside, for pulling back on its coverage of the Miller case when she was incarcerated.)

The most pointed question from the floor challenged her revelation that she had responded positively to Scooter Libby's request that she call him a "former Hill staffer" instead of an administration aide in a story (which she did not end up writing). She claimed she did not mislead anyone, adding that one of things she was "not permitted" to say at one time was that Libby "had never appeared in any of my articles as other than a senior administration official. ... There has never been an allegation that any of my sources have been misidentified."

After that, she demurred when someone from the floor asked if she would comment on Robert Novak.