I need a link... Judy Miller's about "the government is too powerful"

[Rosco T.]

why she wouldn't testify.

[Jack Rabbit]

1. CBS News (July 7): Lips Zipped, Reporter In Jail

From CBS News
Dated Thursday July 7

Lips Zipped, Reporter In Jail

A federal judge on Wednesday jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller for refusing to divulge the name of a source to a grand jury investigating the leak of the name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame.

"There is still a realistic possibility that confinement might cause her to testify," said U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan of the showdown in a case that has had both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney interviewed by investigators. "If we give her a pass this time... then we are on a very slippery slope that leads to anarchy."

CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports Miller said: "I won't testify. The risks are too great. The government is too powerful."

Read more.

[Rosco T.]

2. Thank you.. n/m

[wallwriter]

4. Yep. She's afraid of getting suicided.

[truth2power]

3. Here.

"Lips Zipped, Reporter In Jail"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/07/national/main...

<snip>
"CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports Miller said: "I won't testify. The risks are too great. The government is too powerful."

I posted about this earlier today, here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4128687&mesg_id=4128687

Check kevsand's post in the thread above. He says quote taken out of context.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

5. If you go to the CBS link there is a video on it. She said this in court.

I think it sounds like a cry for help.

[truth2power]

6. Good! Thanks Omm...

I was hoping there would be something to validate the reporter, Stewart's, quote. So she did actually say it.

I don't know any other way to interpret that statement except that she's worried about some sort of revenge. Being "suicided" would be my guess. :(

[kevsand]

7. I can't get the CBS clips to play, but

I remember seeing clips of her statement all day long on the day in question. She was clearly reading from her statement before the court. She may very well have inserted the phrase "I won't testify" into her prepared remarks at that point, for emphasis. This is a common practice, to deviate slightly from the text of prepared remarks. In some ways, she is paraphrasing herself if she did this.

But unless the clips show her entire statement, or at least the paragraph on either side, then the clips themselves are taken out of context. You simply cannot take three sentences out of a statement of several minutes length, and then use them to speculate about a meaning that is entirely unsupported by the rest of the statement.

Her meaning was quite clear, and it referred to the risks whistleblowers might face in speaking to the NYT, and why that might inhibit them. She may very well be afraid for herself, but you can't prove it from this statement.

[truth2power]

8. I guess it all turns on whether

she inserted the sentence, "I won't testify" before "The govt. is too powerful". IMO, that would change the entire meaning, no matter what the rest of the statement said, in which case I'd say she was afraid. That's the way I read it anyway. YMMV.

Because I'm on dial-up it's often problematic for me to source audio/video. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Pain in the neck. Maybe someone else with faster hookup can settle this.

edit: to add "no matter what the rest of the statement said".

[kevsand]

9. She probably WAS afraid.

She was going straight to jail, without passing Go. That would make me more than a little anxious. I just don't see the need to artificially introduce fear of physical danger from "the government" into what is actually a very straightforward statement on her behalf. Occam's Razor, and all that...

[truth2power]

10. I don't think it's a stretch at all

to suggest that she's afraid for her life from this government. I wouldn't put ANYTHING past them.

Of course, I have nothing to rely on except my gut feeling on this.

In case anyone assumes I'm making excuses for her, I'm not. I personally don't care if she rots in jail.

[kevsand]

11. You're right, it's not a stretch

to suggest that. It may very well be true. It would not surprise me in the slightest. But her statement is not proof of it, nor does it really suggest it, imho. That's all.

My only regret is that they can't hold her past October... :toast:

[Garbo 2004]

12. Read it in context in her statement to the court, that's where it's from.

It's about shielding sources, not a "cry for help" and various dramatic interpretations as assumed in several threads on this subject. Read the original source of the quote:

"If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality, then journalists cannot function and there cannot be a free press. Your honor, I believe that a free press depends now more than ever on people willing to express their views, particularly those in government. From my experience, and the experience of investigative journalists like me, I know that many of these people in government will not talk to reporters if we cannot be trusted to protect their identity. The risks are too great; the government is too powerful; the country is too polarized."

Miller's full statement to the court here: http://www.rcfp.org/shields_and_subpoenas/miller_statement.html