Miller's Time

Judith Miller has had her critics over the years, but I would have thought there would be a large measure of sympathy for her on the day she was marched off to jail.

I would have thought wrong.

Many journalists, even among Miller's critics, admire her for her willingness to spend time behind bars to defend the principle that reporters must keep their promises to sources. But if the blogosphere is any indication, her liberal detractors are still mad at her for using administration sources to inflate WMD claims before and after the Iraq war, and therefore look at her as a White House tool, all the more so because they believe she is protecting Karl Rove (who has acknowledged talking to Matt Cooper about the Valerie Plame case but insists he didn't reveal her CIA ties).

In a larger sense, though, the tepid public reaction to the jailing of Miller and the near-jailing of Cooper reflects the sinking approval of journalists and their constant use of inside sources without names attached.

I'm going to start off with the report I filed for the paper, and then we'll scoop up other reaction:

A prominent newspaper reporter is in custody for refusing to disclose secret conversations with Bush administration officials, while the curmudgeonly columnist at the center of the investigation remains free, his situation shrouded in mystery.

A White House that routinely whispers sensitive information to reporters continues to decry the practice of leaking, even as the probe raises questions about the involvement of the president's top political adviser.

The undercover CIA operative whose cover was blown by the leak, possibly in retaliation for her husband's criticism of the administration, poses for a discreet Vanity Fair photo and later returns to work at Langley.

A media establishment that swears by the sanctity of shielding sources turns on one of its own as the nation's oldest newsmagazine bows to a relentless prosecutor and surrenders a reporter's confidential notes.

This is a strange moment in the sometimes polarized, sometimes interdependent relationship among politicians, prosecutors and the press. Judith Miller of the New York Times is headed to jail -- not, for the moment, the administration official or officials who may have violated the law in discussing Valerie Plame's undercover role with her -- over a case in which her newspaper's editorial board praised the Justice Department's decision to bring in a special prosecutor.

Journalists, who have watched their public standing plummet in recent years, find themselves defending an abstract principle in a case in which the sources are not the sort of corporate and government whistle-blowers who were among Time's "Persons of the Year" in 2002 but rather political insiders seemingly bent on partisan mischief.

By upholding the principle of confidentiality, said Time writer Margaret Carlson, "you're protecting a creep."