MONDAY'S LETTERS: Reader Initiates Contest to Name Judy Miller's Next Book

By: Jay DeFoore It was quite a weekend for those of us closely watching every twist and turn in the CIA leak investigation. The New York Times' long-awaited report on Judith Miller's involvement in the Plame affair -- and the reporter's own first-hand account of her testimony in front of the federal grand jury -- invited far more questions than it answered. Below, readers chew on the latest developments.

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Ed's Note: Reader David Wyles has fun with the prospect of naming Judy Miller's next book. The following is in jest, but if you have a good book idea for Miller you'd like to share, send us an e-mail.

Open Competition to Name Judith Miller's Upcoming Book --
Winner to Receive Deluxe Weekend at St. Regis Hotel with Author

Deadline: October 28, 2005 or Whenever Grand Jury Delivers Indictments

Entries thus far:

"Chalabi, Scooter and Me: The Roots of War"

"The Judith Miller Story: Embedded in Iraq...and Washington...and New York...and...Wherever Else Necessary"

"The Aspens are Turning, Turning, Turning and Iraq is Burning, Burning, Burning"

and --

"Put a Little Pinch Between Cheek and Gum: A Reporter's Guide to Publishing (and Continuing to Publish)"


Price Waterhouse will count the entries and validate the votes, but I will remain the sole judge.

And, as in the House of Representatives, the voting will continue until I get the results I want.

Remember, Judy went into jail in the summer and it is fall now. Soon, it will be winter and then spring. The seasons of life go on forever, but not grand juries.

And Judy still has stories to cover and books to write -- about suicide bombers and biological threats and even missing Weapons of Mass Destruction. Our intrepid Judy knows that they're still out there somewhere and she won't rest until she finds them.

We must not keep her locked up in a prison not of her own choosing, where she gets day-old newspapers and can't even watch CNN. She should be free to wander among the aspens, looking for the leaves that are turning in clusters and the roots that connect us all.

David Wyles
Playa Del Rey, Calif.

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I see two possibilities:

Lies and the Lying Liar Who Told Them (with apologies to Al Franken)

or, if she decides to come clean:

Citizen Sulzburger: How I Helped Pinch Get His Splendid Little Quagmire

Alan R. Shrader
Moraga, Calif.

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My entry in the competition for the title of JM's next book is "I Did My Best."

Barb Lightner

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What really bothers me, as a journalist, is that Miller's so-called principled stance on behalf of the First Amendment was not principled at all.

Why did she and the Times not continue negotiations with Scooter Libby and his attorney before she went to jail? Instead, they spent at least a million dollars in legal fees and took the circuitous route of battling in the courts to keep her out of jail. If she had only called Lewis and met with him, she could have learned that his offer of a waiver to testify was both voluntary and sincere. She then could have avoided jail exactly as Matt Cooper and other reporters did.

But it was only after she was in jail and facing the unpleasant prospect of another 18 months behind bars that she chose to initiate talks with Libby. If she stood for a principle before she was incarcerated, does that mean she compromised that very same principle when she was tired of being kept in jail?
I greatly admire reporters who are willing to be jailed rather than rat on a confidential source. But Judith Miller has not earned my admiration. She did not go to jail on behalf of the First Amendment. In fact, we still don't know why she really went to jail, especially since it so easily could have been avoided.

Louis Berney

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What Harm Was Done?


There is one enormous journalism scandal hidden in Judith Miller's Oct. 16th first-person article about the (perhaps lesser) CIA leak scandal.

After reading the Cohen piece in the NY Times and some of the "journalists" on the talk shows Sunday, and now your editorial, I am wondering in all this journalistic navel-gazing whether anyone has bothered to find out if anyone has been executed over this public disclosure of a non-official cover network of "assets" working on nuclear non-proliferation.

I remember that Tenet was asked very early in this scandal, and his reply was that all of the damage had been done already. Has anyone found out what exactly that meant?

That's the trouble with you high-level journalists: You always end up thinking it's all about you. This thing isn't the same as disclosing facts about who is sleeping with whom, as Cohen has suggested. Come to think of it, you guys don't write publicly about that, do you?

Cathleen Bemis

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Great column on the Miller-Little Punch-Keller fiasco. I wonder if Calame will follow your lead, as he in effect has promised. Keep on.

Prof. Paul Krause
Department of History
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C.

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Who is responsible? And how will they make amends?

Bye-bye Keller.


He is more responsible than Judy. This happened on his watch. One doesn't blame the team; responsibility lies with the head office.

Christopher F. Miller
Publisher
MaineStreet Communications, Inc

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The Free Newspaper Revolution

Nothing dooms the newspaper industry faster than the inability to cover itself.

The New York Times on Monday Oct. 10 devoted hundreds of words to covering and commenting on the woes of the newspaper industry. In the article and column it barely mentioned the big bright spot -- the rise of the free daily newspapers, the so-called "minidailies." a.m. NewYork, New York Metro , Chicago RedEye and the Washington Express among others around the country are free weekday tabloid newspapers in major metropolitan areas, attractively designed and full of news and content of interest to young adults. The minidailies together are being read by about 3 million largely young adults every day five days a week. These are the same young adults who largely avoid traditional paid daily newspapers. Add 1 million or more readers of "miniweeklies," tabloids started in smaller metropolitan areas, and you are more than replacing the readership lost by paid dailies.

The rise of the minis, the great untold story of the early 21st century newspaper industry, is the most significant development in the newspaper industry since the invention of USA Today in 1982 and the revolution in design, content and distribution that it caused.

The minis are the "iPod moment," that columnist David Carr wrote that the newspaper industry needed to reverse its slide. Unfortunately, layoffs are necessary in the short term to allow for lost circulation revenue as the newspaper industry gradually converts to free.

Not to worry. The country will be well served and journalism preserved, even strengthened, by the coming free Free Press.

John K. Hartman
Professor of Journalism
Central Michigan University
Mount Pleasant

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Exactly what critical information is being withheld by the Bush Whitehouse?

I'm old enough to remember WWII and the Manhattan Project, which was withheld from the public. Are you suggesting that today no information should be withheld? And if some should, who should decide what information should not be made public?

What is more important: prosecuting this war to a successful conclusion or for reporters to write stories that may embarrass a government official or feed partisan critics?

I for one am sick and tired of the news reporting by our so-called mainstream media.

Can you imagine Edward R Morrow beginning his news reporting during WWII with " today 350 soldiers were killed bringing to a total of 6,000 killed during the first week of this month.?

That's what we are being fed and I'm sick of it.

Nicholas Yanuzzi
Thousand Oaks, Calif.

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I still think the secret source of Judith Miller is probably a former Mrs. Wilson or some other past "flame." Sort of the "no power like a woman scorned? thing. Ambassador Wilson dumped a wife of 12 years for Ms Plame .Not many women take kindly to the flame who pushes? them aside. Human nature trumps most everything, even political motivations. Why would this case be any different?

Edward Dinan

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Is Blackmail Involved?

Dear Mr. Mitchell:

I read your article today in E&P with great interest. I think it made many excellent points. But it leaves hanging the question as to why the Times has treated Miller with such kid gloves. While Keller may have been, or still be, a "hawk," the Times, after all, was the paper who published Joseph Wilson's Op-Ed piece. So I think it might very well have to do specifically with Miller and her relationship with Keller.

So here's my suggestion: It's clear that Miller has very close ties with people in the Administration. I wonder whether she has learned something from one of them about Keller that she's using to blackmail him, much as J. Edgar Hoover blackmailed his superiors. If Miller "has something" on Keller, that would, I think, explain the Times' reticence to attack, or even criticize, Miller.

Gene Glickman

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I kinda look at it the other way. If Judith Miller is protecting another source, which she says she is, and she made a deal with the prosecutor to talk about Bush and Cheney's men only, how can the prosecutor prosecute either one of those two if he can't find out who she is protecting? His only alternative is to pull a Ronnie Earle, and try to prosecute on something not even remotely connected with the starting investigation. This is American justice? I think not.

Sid Morris

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My Time Sunday Edition has No Miller-Plame Stories!

I am holding today's Sunday times (10/16) in my hand, and there is no Miller-Plame story in it! The front page is not the same as that displayed on the Times site, either the national or the local edition, both of which show the articles by Judith Miller and by Van Natta, Liptak, and Levy ("My Four Hours Testifying in the Federal Grand Jury Room" and "The Miller Case: A Notebook, a Cause, a Jail
Cell and a Deal" )

What's going on here? My edition was purchased this morning in Santa Fe, NM. Why are these stories not in it? Any other reports from around the country of this censored edition?

Stephen Miller

Ed?s Note: It sounds like you got an early edition of the paper. For a full explanation, follow this link.