THURSDAY'S LETTERS: TimesSelect, Golf Writers as Enforcement Agents and More

By: Jay DeFoore One month ago yesterday, The New York Times launched TimesSelect, an online subscription service that put its popular Op-Ed columnists behind a paid wall. At the time, we got dozens of letters from readers upset with the move. Today, we hear from a TimesSelect subscriber unimpressed with the Times' other premium offerings, namely the metro columnists. The reader raises an interesting issue: what value does a metro columnist offer to the Times' national readership? If anyone else out there feels like weighing in on TimesSelect, particularly those who have signed up for the service, e-mail us.

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Advice for TimesSelect

Ed's Note: The following letter came in response to Joe Strupp's article Wednesday on the one-month anniversary of TimesSelect.

As a TimesSelect subscriber, I am deeply disappointed with the riches I am supposed to receive. The columnists, of course, are a wonderful mixed bag, some of whom I follow and some not. But as a woman of a certain age in Kansas City, I couldn't care LESS about sports and NY metro news. Why don't they turn this into a spin-off of their ongoing news coverage, using the space as a forum for sidebars, added attention (like to art exhibits, musical performances, fashion, interior design, etc.), expanded interviews, etc.? I am seriously considering canceling my subscription at the end of the month, if I do not see improvement. I simply am getting precious little for my dollar.

Brooke Poirier

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Sulzberger and the Times

Did Sulzberger also allow Jeff Gerth to run amok during the Clinton administration? Was Sulzberger anti Clinton? Did he allow Judith Miller such leeway because he supported the war in Iraq? These questions need to be answered in order to understand the underlying motivations behind the trouble at the Times. Was Sulzberger using the paper in order to advance his own political agenda? It seems that those in upper management have lost their sense of obligation to give the public objective information in these cases and instead have become advocates, thus lowering themselves to the standard of Fox News.

From where I sit, it looks like the Times was a key instigator of the two biggest debacles for this country in the last ten years -- the impeachment and the Iraq War. Without the stellar reputation of the Times, they would have not had this kind of clout. Sadly, that reputation has been squandered.

Dora O'Shaughnessy
Charlotte, N.C.

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Re: Golf Writers Wrestle With Role as Witness

So, if a sports photographer has ?indisputable evidence? that a wide receiver really did get both feet down in bounds, does he present his photos to the National Football League?

And, not that golf is the ?real world,? but what would happen if a news reporter sees a man wearing a bulky overcoat in the summer or ?acting suspicious?? Should the reporter run down to the police station or call the local Homeland Security office? When reporters become agents of enforcement, including alleged rules violations in sporting events, they stop being reporters.

Mike Perkowski

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Commentary on SPJ's Miller Award

New York Times reporter Judith Miller received the ?First Amendment Award? Tuesday, Oct. 18, at the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Convention and National Journalism Conference in Las Vegas.

The SPJ reportedly made the decision to give Miller the award back in July, when she was refusing to provide information to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about her involvement in the leak of the identity of a covert CIA officer.

In recent weeks, days and hours, however, it has been widely reported that Miller might have had more to protect than the First Amendment.

Her refusal to cooperate with Fitzgerald might be linked to several other factors. These include:

- Covering up for her associates within the government who are currently under criminal investigation

- Covering up the fact that she may have played some role in spreading information about the identity of a covert CIA officer

- Covering up her reportedly longstanding association with the so-called ?neocon? community that was instrumental in advocating the invasion of Iraq

- Covering up the unusual freedom she was allowed within the New York Times, apparently provided by the newspaper's executive editor and the publisher

- Covering up the fact that she reportedly acted as an advocate or even a propagandist in writing stories for the Times on Iraq WMD that turned out to contain false information

- Covering up an apparently special relationship with persons in the Pentagon who reportedly may have assisted in providing a ?security clearance? for her while she was in Iraq

- Covering up information on a possible criminal conspiracy, in which she may also be involved

The SPJ did not have this information back in July when they decided to give Miller their award for her choice to refuse to cooperate with the special prosecutor. Then, she seemed like a valiant journalist protecting her confidential sources.

However, by the time the award was presented on Oct. 18, it was widely evident that Miller did not represent the highest standards of journalism. In fact, she has brought disrepute to the journalistic profession.

The board of the SPJ reportedly revisited the matter prior to the award presentation due to breaking news about Miller and decided to go ahead and present her with the award. In doing so, they provided Miller with an honor that gave her undeserved credibility and actually assisted with her possible cover-ups of wrongdoing.

The SPJ award reinforced Miller's story that she refused to testify before the grand jury because she was protecting reporters' rights and the First Amendment.

We know now that she may be protecting unethical and even criminal activity. Her false reporting helped convince the country and the Congress that the invasion of Iraq was warranted.

That invasion, and the ongoing guerilla war there, has resulted in the deaths of 1,971 members of the U.S. military, and injuries, many extremely severe, to 15,220 military personnel. In addition, thousands of Coalition troops from other nations, private contractors, journalists, United Nations and non-governmental organizations staff and innocent Iraqis, including women and children, have been killed and injured.

In giving Miller their award, the SPJ has unfortunately become a part of this ugly situation.

Steve Hammons
Research Analyst
IntelDesk.com