Okrent criticized Miller again this month for her comments on MSNBC's "Hardball," in which she cited unnamed sources as saying the administration has been "reaching out" to Chalabi after a period of estrangement. He wrote that she was "speaking with the authority of the paper," even though she hadn't reported that information in the Times. Okrent said Miller did not respond to his messages and Keller had declined to discuss the subject.
Jack Shafer, Slate's media writer and a frequent Miller critic, said the Okrent column was "very damaging" to her, especially without a response from her or Keller. But Shafer said he did not want to criticize her in the leak investigation because "she's fighting a good fight."
 
Friday's Question:
| | |
|
The concept of journalists being jailed for doing their jobs -- which often includes promising sources confidentiality -- strikes a sensitive chord within the Fourth Estate. "The idea that these journalists could go to prison recalls the actions of governments in China, Ethiopia and Cuba," said Massing, author of "Now They Tell Us," a book on the press and Iraq.
Dalglish said there is "incredible public bewilderment" about the case. "People are saying, 'Wait a minute, why are these two going to jail when it was Bob Novak who got the leak? Why don't they just ask Novak?' I hear that six times a day."
Prosecutor Fitzgerald has declined to discuss his tactics in the case.
One complicating factor for Miller and Cooper is that they are not protecting some whistle-blower ripping the lid off government corruption. Critics, including some journalists, say they are protecting administration officials who tried to damage a critic of President Bush, former ambassador Joe Wilson, by revealing his wife's work for the CIA.
"The same law that could force a journalist to betray a confidence about a 'bad' leaker," Cooper said, "could be used to cudgel a reporter into outing a 'good' leaker. Either way, you have to honor your confidences."
Jonah Goldberg, editor at large at National Review, said journalists consider themselves "a priestly class" that doesn't have to play by the rules governing ordinary citizens. "If we're going to have laws against leaking classified information and outing CIA agents, by saying journalists are free to help with that sort of thing basically gives them a license to be accomplices to crimes," he said.
But Goldberg said the case has a silver lining for Miller, who he believes has been unfairly criticized over her Iraq coverage. "This helps burnish her credentials, and deservedly so, as a serious journalist who's sticking up for her principles and what she thinks is right."
