Many of us have awaited Ms Dowd to write about Judith Miller. She has.

[understandinglife]

She never knew when to quit. That was her talent and her flaw. Sorely in need of a tight editorial leash, she was kept on no leash at all, and that has hurt this paper and its trust with readers. She more than earned her sobriquet "Miss Run Amok."

Judy's stories about W.M.D. fit too perfectly with the White House's case for war. She was close to Ahmad Chalabi, the con man who was conning the neocons to knock out Saddam so he could get his hands on Iraq, and I worried that she was playing a leading role in the dangerous echo chamber that former Senator Bob Graham dubbed "incestuous amplification." Using Iraqi defectors and exiles, Mr. Chalabi planted bogus stories with Judy and other credulous journalists.

Even last April, when I wrote a column critical of Mr. Chalabi, she fired off e-mail to me defending him.

When Bill Keller became executive editor in the summer of 2003, he barred Judy from covering Iraq and W.M.D issues. But he admitted in The Times's Sunday story about Judy's role in the Plame leak case that she had kept "drifting" back. Why did nobody stop this drift?

<clip>

From Woman of Mass Destruction by MAUREEN DOWD on October 22, 2005

More at the link:

http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/22/opinion/22dowd.html?hp

No comment necessary.


Peace.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. Thanks UL!

:hi:

[Captain Hilts]

2. Now, if they'd ljust let MoDo write about Rice's "My husb..." comment. nt

[Gabi Hayes]

3. so where are those free sites to read the Times?

no way pay

[RobertSeattle]

10. Maybe a day later

You can find some of the NY Columnists columns in other papers usually a day after they Publish in the NY Times. (Sometimes same day)

[MarkTwain]

45. Anyone know which papers...

... and which links?

"Select" THIS, Punch Sulzberger!

[Captain Hilts]

48. Creative content isn't free. For us or for the Times.

My firm did some work for Napster and they had the bright idea of going to Congress and insist that what they were doing was legal because since people wanted copyrighted material for free, they ought to be able to have it for free.

Creativity isn't free.

[leanin_green]

69. "Creativity isn't free." At least in America. ;-)

[Sapphire Blue]

49. Never Pay Retail...

http://www.johntabin.com/neverpayretail/

[hiley]

64. ICH has this one up

Woman of Mass Destruction

By MAUREEN DOWD
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10714.htm

[bobbieinok]

79. you may be able to access at your public library's website using your

library card number (possible in Tulsa)

[Lochloosa]

82. Mine was shredded after the Patriot Act passed...

[AZBlue]

87. "Times Select" = the good stuff is no longer free. Anywhere. (n/t)

[understandinglife]

4. "The implication was that this bit of deception was a common practice ...

... for reporters. It isn't.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

6. "It also doesn't seem credible that Judy wouldn't remember a Marvel ...

... name like "Valerie Flame."


Peace.

[understandinglife]

9. "This cagey confusion is what makes people wonder whether her stint ...

... in the Alexandria jail was in part a career rehabilitation project.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

11. "Judy refused to answer a lot of questions put to her by Times ....

... reporters, or show the notes that she shared with the grand jury.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

13. "... and intends to return to the newsroom ... . If that were to happen...

... the institution most in danger would be the newspaper in your hands.


Peace.

[ashling]

18. Thanks for the lesson

in how to get my post count over 7000. :)

[understandinglife]

21. Actually, it's a lesson in how to share tidbits without violating ...

... copyright :evilgrin:

I have no idean how many posts I have at DU ...


Peace.

[kestrel91316]

27. (your profile says 7281)

[wakemewhenitsover]

37. It's appreciated, understandinglife...

Did you stop posting at kos because of his pig-headed attitude re. election fraud? Your posts on both kos and DU have always been thoughtful and very edifying. Thank you.

[flyarm]

38. ulllll...here ya go..........

7292

[Lochloosa]

84. 7326

[hippiegranny]

83. this kitty looks just like my cat

that I lost in May. Her name was Chelsea Belle - beautiful cat with bunny soft fur.

[FreedomAngel82]

33. That should've been a signal

Why didn't they do something?

[Rowdyboy]

5. Bet its a great peice...Wish I could read it..Sorry, Mo, I'll have to wait

a day or two til they run it in the local paper.

The NYT is killing their columnists with this pay bullshit!

[Canuckistanian]

7. Whoops, I acciddentally clicked on the link

Whew! I was almost in the NYT Select site. This wouldn't happen to be in the Sacramento Bee, would it?

[understandinglife]

14. I suspect we'll see it at TruthOut or BuzzFlash or elsewhere, soon.

But, you may just get the drift the article by reading a few comments up-thread ... :)


Peace.

[Neil Lisst]

8. Maureen Dowd is the best!

Thanks for posting. I've been waiting for her to write on it.

[Cha]

12. That was just getting really

good! I'll wait until buzzflash so generously has it.

[rusty charly]

15. or

truthout.com

[Cha]

16. Right!

One of those good patriotic sites.

[MADem]

65. Go here

http://cyphering.blogspot.com/2005/10/judy-miller-show.html

My favorite bit:
Once when I was covering the first Bush White House, I was in The Times's seat in the crowded White House press room, listening to an administration official's background briefing. Judy had moved on from her tempestuous tenure as a Washington editor to be a reporter based in New York, but she showed up at this national security affairs briefing.

At first she leaned against the wall near where I was sitting, but I noticed that she seemed agitated about something. Midway through the briefing, she came over and whispered to me, "I think I should be sitting in the Times seat."

It was such an outrageous move, I could only laugh. I got up and stood in the back of the room, while Judy claimed what she felt was her rightful power perch.

She never knew when to quit. That was her talent and her flaw. Sorely in need of a tight editorial leash, she was kept on no leash at all, and that has hurt this paper and its trust with readers. She more than earned her sobriquet "Miss Run Amok."

[Cha]

66. Thank you, MADem!

Just finished reading that juicy stuff from MoDo. I knew it would be good..

That sounds like miss run amuck.."At first she leaned against the wall near where I was sitting, but I noticed that she seemed agitated about something. Midway through the briefing, she came over and whispered to me, "I think I should be sitting in the Times seat."

Little did she know that bit of arrogance would come back to be spread across the nation and if they're like me..going: "Aha!"

This last bit was a gem, too.."Judy told The Times that she plans to write a book and intends to return to the newsroom, hoping to cover "the same thing I've always covered - threats to our country." If that were to happen, the institution most in danger would be the newspaper in your hands."

judy should cover herself..she is a big "threat" to our country!

[understandinglife]

17. Tim Rutten in the LA Times: "How Miller was used by source"

<clip>

"Did Mr. Libby explain this request? Mr. Fitzgerald asked. No, I don't recall, I replied. But I said I assumed Mr. Libby did not want the White House to be seen as attacking Mr. Wilson."

You can bet he didn't. As the Los Angeles Times' Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger reported Friday, Libby was obsessed with Wilson and determined to discredit — and defame — him. Why take the chance of leaving your own fingerprints at the scene of the crime, when the Washington press corps continues to be studded with useful idiots like Miller, who would whack their own grandmothers for a byline above the fold.

The breathtaking ease with which Miller acceded to a demand from one of the executive branch's highest ranking officials that she mislead her readers about what really was occurring on an issue of literally life-and-death importance should be just that — breathtaking. Unfortunately, it's just another shabby example of dirty work as usual among a certain time-serving segment of the Washington press corps.

<clip>

More at the link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-et-rutten22oct22,0,4799290.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=hppromobox

I think it important to link this early and accurate commentary on Miller's disgusting presentation before the Senate Judiciary Committee to Ms. Dowd's exposition.


Peace.

[Leopolds Ghost]

56. More from the LA Times Article... "con men" "shills" "crooks"

At another point in her congressional testimony, Miller argued that "a second
reason why this bill is so urgently needed is that in the post-9/11 era,
dramatically increased amounts and types of information are being classified
as secret, and hence are no longer available for public review…. In such a
climate, confidential sources, particularly in the national security and
intelligence areas, are indispensable to government accountability."

True, but that assumes the confidential sources aren't behaving like con men
and that the reporters involved haven't signed on as shills to lure the suckers
into whatever version of the old shell game the crooks are running this week.

Another part of the Times' coverage of this affair makes it abundantly clear
just how easy it is for a reporter of Miller's ilk to go from telling just
part of the truth to telling none of it.

[understandinglife]

19. ReddHedd at firedoglake -- "Throw Judy From the Train"

In advance of Public Editor Byron Calame's extensive article on the Judy escapade for Sunday's NYTimes, Bill Keller took his own case to the staff of the Times directly today. Crooks and Liars has the text of the letter up here:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/stories/2005/10/21/aMessageFromBillKeller.html

It is blunt in some places, and brutal toward Judy in a back-handed way that shows that Keller is fairly unhappy (to put it mildly) about her keeping him in the dark about a lot of things between her and Scooter.

More from ReddHedd at the link:

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005/10/throw-judy-from-train.html

Peace.

[Oilwellian]

28. Check out what Keller says...

I wish that when I learned Judy Miller had been subpoenaed as a witness in the leak investigation, I had sat her down for a thorough debriefing, and followed up with some reporting of my own. It is a natural and proper instinct to defend reporters when the government seeks to interfere in our work. And under other circumstances it might have been fine to entrust the details -- the substance of the confidential interviews, the notes -- to lawyers who would be handling the case. But in this case I missed what should have been significant alarm bells. Until Fitzgerald came after her, I didn't know that Judy had been one of the reporters on the receiving end of the anti-Wilson whisper campaign. I should have wondered why I was learning this from the special counsel, a year after the fact. (In November of 2003 Phil Taubman tried to ascertain whether any of our correspondents had been offered similar leaks. As we reported last Sunday, Judy seems to have misled Phil Taubman about the extent of her involvement.) This alone should have been enough to make me probe deeper.

Why in the hell is this man the executive editor of the most prominent newspaper in the country? Shouldn't his first instinct as a newsman have been to ask who, what, when, where and WHY??

[understandinglife]

31. Of course, it should have been. And, I think you will see Bill & Arthur ..

... moving on to other things as 'personal/family responsibilities' require them to resign, or whatever.

The dude is finished and he knows it. And, plenty of folk have been speculating for the past few weeks that 'Pinch' needs to spend time in Europe or whatever snot-nosed, trust babies do when they totally fuck up the family business.


Peace.

[leanin_green]

70. Pure CYA. And to answer you question, yes.

[Burried News]

75. More introspection from the NY Times. Paging Dr. Assman...

http://www.bahia.hu:2000/cuccok/dinamikus/general/Head%2520up%2520Ass.jpg

[Skittles]

20. essentially, Ms. Miller is nothing more than a scam artist

she assisted bush inc in scamming America

[understandinglife]

22. Otherwise known as Neoconster Propagandist-in-Chief ... a deadly art.

credit to firedoglake for finding this one


Peace.

[Historic NY]

23. I would call her an agent of propaganda who feed us........

BS stories from the * Ministry. She was either too damn stupid or a clever plant. Perhaps the NYT needs to vet there own reporters.

[gumby]

24. Maureen Dowd is Judy Miller lite.

Dowd and Miller are two peas in the same rancid pod that is now rotting on the 'New York Times' withering vine.

Dowd's "opinion" has been just as lethal as Judy's "news."

They deserve each other; and the NYT deserves both of them.

[tavalon]

26. I like Maureen Dowd

I've never liked Judy Miller.

[gumby]

34. Fine.

Here are some of the reasons I don't like MoDo.
http://www.google.com/custom?q=dowd&cof=AH%3Acenter%3BAWFID%3Ac32a032061318778%3B&domains=dailyhowler.com&sitesearch=dailyhowler.com

[UpInArms]

41. thanks for the Howler search link -

this critique of MoDo says how I feel best:

Dowd is one of the Enabling journalists who took great pleasure in bashing Clinton, much to the joy of the GOPstopo who ran the Arkansas project whos sole aim was to get Clinton. Kenneth Star, Ted Olson, Burton, DeLay and others began hounding Clington BEFORE he was sworn in. Dowd enabled the Right and helped prepare for the COUP by mindless repeating and MAKING up stories. When she apoligises to the Clintons then we will know that she is truely awake and no longer part of the Journalist mob supporting the Coup. Her April 1st apology to Gore is a first step toward rehabilitation from the Bash Clinton Habit.

http://www.geocities.com/svpokai/svpokai/

[bertha katzenengel]

58. God forbid anyone should have the temerity to criticize - right or wrong -

any leader in this country. Why, it's anti-American. :eyes:

[Skittles]

43. I'm with you gumby

I get mighty tired of all the kudos for Ms. Dowd who has been known to play the whore herself on some very critical occasions

[leanin_green]

71. Takes one to know one, you suppose? Not that I'm against Ms. Dowd.

[sufrommich]

44. I consider Maureen Dowd one of the best columnist out there.

In what way do you see a comparison to Judy Miller?Miller has always come across as a shill for the Bush presidency to me,but I can't think of one instance where I would say the same of Dowd.She always seems right on target .

[gulfcoastliberal]

54. Guess you never read her columns during the Clinton presidency.

Part and parcel of the reich wing conspiracy.

[sufrommich]

59. I don't agree with everything

she has ever written,but I think she is a great commentator and I certainly would never compare her to judith Miller.Are you saying that anyone who doesn't agree with the party line is akin to a right wing opinion maker?

[bobbieinok]

81. she 24/7 spouted the antiGore 'story' in election 2000

[sufrommich]

85. I don't know which anti Gore story

you are talking about,you aren't being very specific,but it really doesn't matter.I imagine it's pretty hard to learn any thing new once you decide to only read those who agree with you 24/7.It's not like she's evil personified is it?I get the feeling when I read her that she is level headed and a democrat,I can accept that shes not my personal mouthpiece.

[bobbieinok]

88. the story accrding to Cokie Roberts was that Gore was uptight,

a serial liar, etc

she said this in Dec 2000, I think, in answer to a question about why the media covered the candidates the way they did

she said, with stunning pride and no regrets, that the media had a Gore storyline ('teacher's pet type of guy', etc) and a W storyline ('a regular guy you'd like to have a beer with'); anything that did not fit into these storylines did not get written

[July]

60. "Lite" describes her perfectly.

I always think she writes her snarky columns in five minutes.

[Pachamama]

25. "Woman of Mass Destruction" - The real WMD!

Ha ha ha! I love it....I love Maureen Dowd...I wonder how long she had to bite her tongue on calling out this one....

:rofl:

[understandinglife]

30. Evidently until Bill & Arthur stopped censoring her (and Herbert and ...

... Krugman and Rich and their entire frigging newsroom).


Peace.

[understandinglife]

36. "I’m assuming, as I’ve been saying for months, that this ends up ...

... going all the way to Sulzberger." -- Arianna Huffington

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/assumptions-raised-by-the_b_9297.html

Yep.


Peace.

[flyarm]

39. the entire countries media has been censored and gaged

by the fucking corporate media whore companies!

and the real journalists have swallowed it..for $$$$$$$$$$$

when we get real journalists that are willing to get fired for the truth, (like the bbc guys over the dr kelly case)..we will get truth...until then we are screwed as a nation for ever..

we must shut them down ..and be serious about it..shut em off and shut em down...

its supply and demand...if there is no demand..well...fuckem!

we have already proven that..we are the media....all the blogs and the internet..we don't need them..they know it..now we must go to the next step and just shut them down..do we have the will to do that..??????

do you still turn on rush????????
how many here do?????

how about fox???????

i have shut them all down except msnbc..and i only turn on keith olberman..period...

you have to make the conserted effort to shut em down!!

child bloc works wonders!!

fly

[understandinglife]

29. "In the meantime, Judy Miller needs to find a new rationalization. ...

... In The "everyone was wrong, so no one was wrong" line is as thoroughly discredited as the administration's prewar claims... and Judy Miller's obliging reporting of them.

And Ms Huffington is assembling quite an 'honor roll' of those debunking the 'everyone was wrong' Millerism:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/sorry-judy-everybody-_b_9239.html

Psst, Judy -- this isn't Iran-Contra or Watergate. This is murderous treason you've been a willing participant. Think about it.


Peace.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

53. In the run-up to war, one of the best sources that I had to verify in my

mind that there were no WMD was the WP's Walter Pincus. I had read at some point, he was guy that the CIA went to when they had to get the truth out there. From Huffington's excellent article.

Walter Pincus. On March 16, 2003, days before Shock and Awe, the Washington Post's Pincus, who also played a part in Plamegate, reported on the growing skepticism in the intelligence community:

Despite the Bush administration's claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, U.S. intelligence agencies have been unable to give Congress or the Pentagon specific information about the amounts of banned weapons or where they are hidden, according to administration officials and members of Congress.
Senior intelligence analysts say they feel caught between the demands from White House, Pentagon and other government policymakers for intelligence that would make the administration's case "and what they say is a lack of hard facts," one official said. ...

The assertions, coming on the eve of a possible decision by President Bush to go to war against Iraq, have raised concerns among some members of the intelligence community about whether administration officials have exaggerated intelligence in a desire to convince the American public and foreign governments that Iraq is violating United Nations prohibitions against chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons and long-range missile systems.

BTW... UL, you are doing yeoman's work here! Thanks!

[FreedomAngel82]

32. I always love hearing from Ms Dowd

[understandinglife]

35. dKos link to discussion of Ms Dowd's zinger:

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/21/235816/22


Peace.

[Kickin_Donkey]

40. As Bartcop has said ...

thanks Modo, but you're about five years too late. You helped put Bush in office. Some of the blood is on your hands.

[MarkTwain]

46. And, as he also says about Dowd...

... "Marueen Dowd. She hates everyone"

I love that man.

[DemReadingDU]

42. I like Maureen Dowd

good article

[Captain Hilts]

47. MoDo hates W and Hillary. So, she's an equal opportunity hater. nt

[robbedvoter]

50. Not quite so equal. With the Clintons, it was personal, vicious.

With the BFEE - it's more like finally letting reality be covered.
I never saw Dowd lying about BFEE (like she did on Hillary's Neuman-Marcus gift registration that made the RW press circulation for years)
Dowd amuses me - but she is by no means" objective"

[Neecy]

51. she was really nasty with Gore, though

She helped to spread the 'serial liar' smear and earth tones crap - she mocked him throughout the 2000 election with GOP talking points.

[robbedvoter]

57. My point exactly. More vicious to democrats than to GOP. Not "equal

opportunity hater" as some try to portray her.

[jmatthan]

52. It is not just Judith Miller

The New York Times Management are the US "Warlords of Mass Destruction"

Read "Torch of Death" at

http://jmpolitics.blogspot.com/2005/10/torch-of-death.html

[Time for change]

55. This is great

Thanks for posting this ul.

[bleever]

61. Link to the column (courtesy Buzzflash)

http://cyphering.blogspot.com/2005/10/judy-miller-show.html

[nvliberal]

67. That's another fool who is going to get in trouble with the NYT

for violating copyright.

[understandinglife]

78. Thank you!

Peace.

[hiley]

62. thanks UL

for tidbits, I am not paying to read NYT's so I'll wait until truthout has the rest up.
:hide:

[hiley]

63. Woman of Mass Destruction (entire article up)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10714.htm

[nvliberal]

68. Thanks for the link.

That source is probably okay publishing the whole piece.

[understandinglife]

77. Thank you! And, here is the link at TruthOut to the entire article.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102205A.shtml


Peace.

[IndianaGreen]

72. I won't subscribe to Times Select

so perhaps Commondreams will pick this article up.

[XOKCowboy]

73. Never rile an Irish Woman

I know Modo went to town on Clinton but I like her style. She put her career on the line with this column.

[DURHAM D]

74. Judy Miller vs. Maureen Dowd - Miss Run Amok vs. Miss Snarky.

Can't stand either one of them - both working from a basis of hate and envy. Miller is deer in the headlights stupid and Dowd is willfully nasty.

[understandinglife]

76. Billmon: "To me, the New Pravda's role in the Iraq debacle resembles ...

... the part played by William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal in the far more successful Spanish-American War. It was Hearst, after all, who cabled a Journal photographer in Cuba: "You supply the pictures; I'll supply the war." Which was roughly the same instructions that the Pentagon gave Judy Miller. Both were true to their word. Which at this point, is more than you can say for the New York Times.

<clip>

In other words, thanks to office politics -- and Bill Keller's sense of proper corporate etiquette -- America's "paper of record" essentially ignored its own role in publicizing what was either (or both) the biggest foreign policy con job since the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, or the worst intelligence debacle since Pearl Harbor.

This is a remarkable confession. Keller has openly admitted that when push came to shove, the New Pravda's committment to honest, objective reporting simply wasn't as important as maintaining the paper's internal bureaucratic "equilibrium." And so the minor scandal (Jayson Blair) became the excuse for ignoring the major one -- the one that helped lead the country into a disastrous war. Telling the truth, as Keller puts it, would have been "unsavory."

Personally, I think this deserves a hell of a lot more than Calame's rather milktoast censure...

<clip>

From The New Pravda's Lost Year by Billmon on October 23, 2005

Link:

http://billmon.org/archives/002290.html

You'll find it worthwhile to read the entire essay.


Peace.

[leftofthedial]

80. "hurt this paper and its trust with readers"--MY ASS!

What about 10's or 100's of thousands of dead Iraqis?

What about 2000 (actually many more) dead US soldiers?

What about uncounted wounded, maimed, forever scarred Americans?

What about tens of thousands of devastated families?

What about 100's of billions of dollars worse than wasted?

What about a gutted constitution?

. . .

After a decade plus of carrying neocon water, helping to assassinate Clinton's character and aiding and abetting the rise of fascism in Murka, FUCK the TImes!

[JPZenger]

86. Reporters With the Connections Don't Want to Lose Them

Miller was a classic case about how people in power use journalists. They pick some favored journalists and feed them enough inside information to help the journalists careers. The journalist then gets addicted to this easy source of stories, and their editors reward them. They agree to kill stories that are unfavorable to their sources. In the case of Miller, she was even willing to lie about the type of anonymous source. She said that Scooter Libby was a former Capital Hill staffer.

Then Miller committed the unforgivable sin of lieing to an editor. It is OK to repeatedly lie to the public to help justify a useless war, but don't ever lie to an editor.

Meanwhile, the most accurate reporting about the Iraq situation before the U.S. invasion was being done by the Washington Bureau of the Knight-Ridder newspapers. Those guys deserve a Pulitizer. You can read their stories on-line today, and they all turned out to be true. They predicted everything that happened in Iraq over the last 3 years - based upon inside analysis by the State Department that was ignored by the decision-makers.

One reporter said the key to Knight-Ridder's accuracy was that they did not have access to the top people in the Administration. Therefore, they had no fear of having their access cut off. Instead, they actually talked to the disgruntled senior civil service professionals in the State Department and Defense Departments. Those people knew exactly what was going on, and were very motivated to get the truth out.