WEDNESDAY'S LETTERS: Another SPJ Debate Getting Far Less Attention

By: Jay DeFoore We know you're obsessed with Judith Miller, The New York Times, and the Valerie Plame investigation. We are too. Sometimes you just need to vent. But we start off today's letters with another controversy that has gotten far less attention. But rest assured, after your vegetables, we'll give you an extra helping of dessert.

***

The Other SPJ Controversy

Re: Forget Miller: Another SPJ Honoree Gets Flak

Thanks for writing about this issue. College Media Advisers and Student Press Law Center have been lobbying against the Illinois AG getting this award for weeks via their Web sites and listserves. I'm glad to see E&P giving it some press.

I also wanted to point out, according to word coming from the convention's newspaper (how appropriate is it that SPJ is dealing with the Madigan and Miller controversies in Vegas?) that three national board members, numerous individual members and three chapters -- Fort Worth, Utah and Mid-Michigan, of which I'm president -- raised concerns about Madigan's selection for this award.

Opposition is not just coming from outside SPJ. How can someone be honored for their work in open government when they're simultaneously working to give government wide-ranging ability to censor a segment of the media? National officials still haven't explained this paradox to members.

Jeremy W. Steele
Reporter
Business Review Lansing-Jackson

***

Re: Golf Writers Wrestle With Role as Witness

So, what's the point? You don't come to any conclusion. Should sportswriters become de facto tattletales or not? If you're going to duck the issue, why bring it up in the first place?

Jim Lynch

Ed's Note: I believe that question should be directed to The AP's golf writer, Doug Ferguson, who wrote the article. Care to respond?

***

More Miller's Book Titles

Ed's Note: Since Judith Miller stated last week that she might write a book about her experiences in the Valerie Plame investigation, readers have been offering up potential titles for the reporter's pending tome. For more, see the letters columns from Monday and Tuesday, or send us your own ideas.

Just a few have come to mind:

"All the Vice President's Men"*
*(okay, just one man, really I swear I can't recall any others)

"Apocalypse ... How? A Neocon Guide to Eternal War"

"Quest for 'Flame'"

"The Lyin' the Snitch and the War Probe"

Anne Dickson
Hartington, Ontario
Canada

***

Re: Sulzberger Says It's Time To Put the Miller Case Behind Us

So that's it, huh? "Let's put it all behind us?" Who is Sulzberger kidding? This is only the start! You have an ace top-notch reporter who can't remember who told her the name at the center of one of the biggest administration scandals. (I have to say it -- how stupid does she think we all are?) You have this same ace top-notch reporter as a loose cannon, doing whatever she wants to do in spite of management, endangering her paper's reputation and running the place, basically, an inmate running the asylum. You have same ace top-notch reporter conspiring with a source to mislead the public about where information was coming from. You have a ton of unanswered questions surrounding this whole affair, and an awful lot of journalists across the country who feel betrayed, who feel Miller and the Times have betrayed the profession. Off with all their heads! Miller should be fired, immediately. The Times should apologize to its readers and put policies and standards in place to ensure that something like this never happens again. No more yellow ribbons, no more "Judy's Days In Jail" countdowns. I'm done being played for a fool by her. Sulzberger is wrong, this is far from over. He and Miller still have a lot of explaining to do.

Caren West

***

The Plame Name Blame Game

Maybe the reason Judith Miller can't remember the name of the source is there is nothing to remember.

If she has no source, it would perfectly explain her inability to name him. Her reluctance to blame Scooter Libby would then be because she knows he did not name Plame.

One question no one seems to be asking is why Fitzgerald focused on Miller in the first place. Perhaps several other reporters named Miller as their source for Valerie Plame's name and work affiliation. It could be that Miller got the information direct from sources within the CIA, or from Joe Wilson himself, and she is the actual source of the name.

Brad Jensen
Tulsa, Okla.