By: Joe Strupp The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) has reaffirmed its plans to honor embattled New York Times reporter Judith Miller with its First Amendment Award on Tuesday, amid new revelations concerning the reporter's involvement in the CIA leak investigation and her recent grand jury testimony.
Mac McKerral, a board member, told E&P today that the SPJ board, which has more than 20 members, met again on Saturday and reiterated its desire to give her the award. "We have had members who have e-mailed us that this is a bad idea, and that is why we revisited the issue at the convention and reaffirmed it," he said, noting that he knew of no board members who had voted against the decision this weekend.
Reached Monday, SPJ board members stressed that the honor is not meant to be an assessment of her entire career.
"It's not a lifetime achievement award," McKerral, a SPJ past president, told E&P. "I could understand people being upset if we were recognizing her work over a period of time, but this is an award for being willing to not reveal a source, willing to spend so many days in jail, and that is how we distinguish it."
David Carlson, the SPJ's incoming president, agreed: "It is important to point out that we are not trying to recognize everything a person has done. The First Amendment Award is to recognize someone doing an extraordinary thing to further the First Amendment. I don't have any way of knowing what all of her motives were, but we do know that she spent 85 days in jail and that act drew great attention to the First Amendment."
McKerral, who is at the SPJ Convention in Las Vegas where the award will be presented Tuesday morning, noted that the SPJ Board initially decided to give the award to Miller in July. That decision came shortly after Miller was sent behind to jail for refusing to testify in the Valerie Plame case about a source who had discussed Plame's identity with her.
After 85 days, Miller was released and, just this past weekend, the Times published a lengthy report on her dealings with federal investigators, sources, and the newspaper itself that seemed to generate more controversy than it quelled.
He also said the weekend reports in the Times, and the mixed reaction to them, had no influence on the award. "Issues raised in the past couple of days really had no bearing on the award," he said.
Miller could not be reached for comment Monday, but she is expected to be at the convention by tonight.
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