Late Nite OPEN THREAD

Posted by catnip | Oct 22, 2005 | 25 |

Still up? Bored?

Read NYT Editor Bill Keller’s memo to his staff courtesy of Crooks and Liars. I don’t think Bill likes Judy much any more. Maybe it’s just me…

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catnip

25 Comments

lonestar canuck on October 22, 2005 at 3:21 am

I am up, yes. Waiting for child #1 to stop barfing every ten minutes. This is a nasty tummy bug and I just hope they don’t all get it or it will be a terrible weekend. Poor thing was at a Brownie sleepover when it struck and she was more upset about missing the sleepover than being sick to her stomach.
- Kahli on October 22, 2005 at 6:40 am
  
  Poor little one. Hope you are both sound asleep now.
reb on October 22, 2005 at 3:52 am

Keller’s letter..hmmm apologist to what exponential power? The NYT is experiencing serious heat from readers- it will be interesting to see if they do anything close to what subscribers are calling for-like fire j.miller.

On a semi-related note i wanted to share this link from Editor & Publisher: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001349495

It’s an interesting article about MSM perception of Blogs.

What do you think about it? it strikes me that the most riveting current events, e.g. pending indictments, have been so under reported in msm, and frankly even minus irresistible speculation(which the vacuum of msm creates) ,the blogs have still been ahead of this story -and the msm feel the need to undercut the reporting that has transpired courtesy of blogs. i think this is a significant ‘media’ moment Opinions? (and good night)
- Mnemosyne on October 22, 2005 at 9:26 am
  
  Interesting comments. In conventional news, you have stories that may originate from anonymous sources but are written by people you can identify by name and location. In political blogs, you have stories that may originate from anonymous sources, but are rigorously fact-checked and challenged by thousands of readers, even while written by people using pseudonyms from undisclosed locations.
  
  The hard-copy folks quoted here are saying, We’re more reliable than you amateurs. But they forget, or overlook, that a good many of the people writing about Plamegate, at least on this blog and others I think of as “reliable,” are reporters and editors, past and present, as well as politicans, lawyers, and experts in various fields.
  
  The editor of E&P reads at least one blog, as I’ve seen him posting at the orange place.
  
  In an ideal news situation, I think the two methods would work together, much as allopathic and homeopathic medicine can complement one another.
Kahli on October 22, 2005 at 6:48 am

Isn’t this lovely. Radio City Music Hall is apparently having a labor conflict with its musicians. The way the managment decided to handle a possible strike was to invite displaced Louisians musicians to play at Radio City during the holidays without mentioning the one little fact that they would be scabbing if they did so. Happy holidays. Goodwill toward labor.
Gaianne on October 22, 2005 at 7:09 am

It’s late, I skimmed it fast, so I have no deep analysis, just a sense of the tone:

First, let me say, that the difference between Judy Miller and Jayson Blair, is, that Jayson Blair was fired for what he did. Judy was kept on, and that says a lot: She has been doing the job they want her to do.

The letter is not an apology. It is a wheedling pleading, making exuses. Admitting to naivite, admitting to inexperience, admitting to neglect, but claiming it was inadvertant, and further, otherwise claiming ignorance and innocence.

In spirit, if not in narrowly-read detail, it is a lie.

Is Bill unhappy! You bet! Less with Judy, though, than with the fact that she has been caught and turned. They thought the great Judy-martyrdom-for-the-1st-Amendment (with-NYT-backing) story was going to fly. It looked like it had, until Judy suddenly “remembered” her “forgotten” notes!

I have no real idea what the NYT has been up to, but so much is made clear: They are vulnerable to charges and penalties.

It is not an apology because they cannot come clean. Cannot. It’s not a choice.

Judy can lead Fitgerald’s investigation right into the NYT editorial offices. The smoke is pouring in and suddenly it occurs to them that they should have built a firewall. The only way now is to try to disassociate themselves from Judy and hope. Plausible deniability. Is there a paper trail? Undeniable evidence? Right now their paper-shredder is working over-time as they try to remove traces of their part in the WMD/Iraq War build-up/WHIG/Plamegate scam. Have they forgotten anything?

I hope so.
- Oui on October 22, 2005 at 7:52 am
  
  .
  Judith Miller was protecting Judith Miller and The New York Times.
  
  Every day one sees more comments that links Judith Miller to Chalabi and her job as an operative in Iraq or an Intelligence whore on The Hill. Notwithstanding the CIA link to Sulzberger at the Times.
  
  Y’all Missed My Diary?
  CIRCLE CLOSED :: Neocons – AIPAC – Shill Reporter Laurie Mylroie – Benador Associates
  U.S. District Court Indictment Larry Franklin & AIPAC Directors
  Judith Miller :: A Need To Know Basis – Security Clearance
  Judith Miller :: Libya – Gaddafi – Poindexter
  “Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
  For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
  
  ▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

BrendaStewart on October 22, 2005 at 8:53 am

Well, I was not up late, so Goooooood Morning, Booman Tribune……..

I have read while drinking coffee this morning. A good sense to me is both that the NYT did let lots slide by when they should have been more prudent as to what they let be printed by many reporters. They wanted to be first in reporting something. Can’t blame a newspaper for wanting to be first; however, when doing this one has to be very sure one is right with their reporting in the first place or else one might get other law suits upon oneself. One would have thought this might have been ones major concern in the first place. It is good to have trust in your employees, but when one goes on vacation for a long number of years to let the employees run the show, something is wrong with that one. The editors have not been vigilant. They have been on permanent vacation, IMHO. Judy and maybe others had no oversight to their articles and to what they were doing.

NOw they want to get sympathy from their readers so they do not loose readership. This should have been there only thought years ago when it came to being accurate. Well, DUH! this is very obvious to anyone capable of understanding things in the slightest. I am not a avid reader of the NYT’s; however, they do have ways of getting ppl to see their side of things…whyare the names of ppl there– and the position in life those ppl are. What a sad thing for anyone. Judy was only doing the job she got assigned (? from whom is the question) and one she was and has been doing for many years. They know what kind of person and reporter she was. Therefore, I do not take sympathy with Mr. Keller or any other editor (now) wanting it.

Last year, early, I wrote to Mr. Keller and he wrote back and it was not a very nice letter. Well, now he sees it like I did and that’s bothering him…..well, sorry Charlie…that is the way the mop falls…you paid to play so now you must pay the piper for the crime. I do think most at the NYT’s gave Miller a wink and a nudge on many things she did…so that makes them complicit in her facade`!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOO, Good Morning, America. YOu now know the rest of the story…as harvey would say….all he is saying IMHO is I know I did wrong but I will do better–fingers crossed behind back– till the next time..I am sure you get my drift. The thing that is big is they are loosing money and readership…that is a financial problem for Keller…oh, for shame…..now they must do something!!!!! toooooo late…..this is just my take on it, anyhow.

Mnemosyne on October 22, 2005 at 9:12 am

The editors have not been vigilant.

Amen, Sister!

This whole Times imbroglio is Journalism 101: Don’t take anything for granted, ask questions, get confirmation from multiple and independent sources, do not believe anything a politician tells you.

If your mother says she loves you . . . check it out!

Keller was an OK reporter, an uninspiring op-ed columnist, and now seems to be a dismal failure as executive editor. The Peter Principle hard at work. Plus, aided and abetted, I suspect, by a hefty dose of political lack of acumen from young Sulzberger.

Don’t blame it on all the Timespeople, though. There are plenty of folks on West 43rd Street who are major pissed off.
- BrendaStewart on October 22, 2005 at 9:46 am
  
  ((Don’t blame it on all the Timespeople, though. There are plenty of folks on West 43rd Street who are major pissed off. ))—–I know what you’re getting at here, I was just commenting on the editor and his article. Oh, I have heard how ppl at the times did not like miller and her ways of reporting and the like. I must assume that there are those who are honest and forthright with us. This topic is just not the case….
  
  Thanks for commenting…I was just calling it like I saw it…Would love to hear more from 43rd street too!!!!!! :o)
- CJnyc on October 22, 2005 at 10:11 am
  
  Don’t blame it on all the Timespeople, though.
  
  Absolutely. This is an editorial crisis, but the pity is that the vast majority of ethical, honest NYT reporters will bear the stigma for a long time to come.
CJnyc on October 22, 2005 at 10:06 am

Keller is trying to rewrite the past with this public letter, and it’s far too late for that. “I should have”, “I wish that…”, “I would have”, “entanglement”, “insidious new menace”, etc. etc. Honest regrets are fine, but there is no way in hell the Times editorship could have missed the clamor about Judy starting before the war. Unless they wanted to.

You wrote them and got a reaction from him — good for you. Must have been a doozy! I wrote repeatedly and got no response. Keller et. al. know where this goes, and are in full damage control mode. And it doesn’t look like Sulzberger’s hands are clean either. Their history has already been written, and not by the Times. An institution as large and old as the NYT is hard to kill, but this is a great way to start. Even after Keller goes, new editors will have to work for years and years to get back the readership trust and political clout lost with Miller.

The only possible upside is it’s going to be slightly more difficult for right-wing bloviaters to use the “liberal media” canard — aiding and abetting a neocon regional holy war is a hard peg to fit in that hole.

Knoxville Progressive on October 22, 2005 at 9:07 am

Hmmm…

Let’s see, Goof-up #1, Jayson Blair; Goof-up #2, not covering lies before the war; Goof-up #3 Judy Miller.

I suspect the editor may be on the way out, based on this bit of folk wisdom which seems eerily true:

A man had just been hired as the new editor of a large newspaper. The editor who was stepping down, met with him privately and presented him with three numbered envelopes. “Open these if you run up against a problem you don’t think you can solve,” he said.

Things went along pretty smoothly, but six months later, a scandal erupted and the new editor was really catching a lot of heat. About at his wit’s end, he remembered the envelopes.

He went to his drawer and took out the first envelope. The message read, “Blame your predecessor.” The editor called a press conference and tactfully laid the blame at the feet of the previous editor. Satisfied with his comments, the public responded positively, sales began to pick up and the problem was soon behind him.

About a year later, the company was again experiencing a dip in sales, combined with serious lapses in reporting. Having learned from his previous experience, the editor quickly opened the second envelope. The message read, “Reorganize.” This he did, and the company quickly rebounded.

After several relatively quiet quarters, the company again fell on difficult times. The editor went to his office, closed the door and opened the third envelope. The message said: “Prepare three envelopes.”

Knoxville Progressive on October 22, 2005 at 9:11 am

Catnip, do you ever sleep? Are you actually a committee, or a gaggle of clones? I don’t see how you do it.
😀
sjct on October 22, 2005 at 9:26 am

Where did it come from?
- Knoxville Progressive on October 22, 2005 at 3:52 pm
  
  It’s a joke I heard about 5 years ago, but with “editor” replacing “CEO.” I’m sure it’s older than that.

Ed J on October 22, 2005 at 9:22 am

she should be sent back to prison. How exactly do you define “lying to a grand jury”?

This from the National Journal

By Murray Waas, special to National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005

New York Times reporter Judith Miller told the federal grand jury in the CIA leak case that she might have met with I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby on June 23, 2003 only after prosecutors showed her Secret Service logs that indicated she and Libby had indeed met that day in the Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House, according to attorneys familiar with her testimony.

Miller testified in her second grand jury appearance that it was during this June 23 meeting that she and Libby first discussed Plame’s CIA employment.

When a prosecutor first questioned Miller during her initial grand jury appearance on September 30, 2005 sources said, she did not bring up the June 23 meeting in recounting her various contacts with Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney. Pressed by prosecutors who then brought up the specific date of the meeting, Miller testified that she still could not recall the June meeting with Libby, in which they discussed a controversial CIA-sponsored mission to Africa by former Ambassador Joe Wilson, or the fact that his wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA.

When a prosecutor presented Miller with copies of the White House-complex visitation logs, she said such a meeting was possible.

Shortly after her September 30 testimony, Miller discovered her notes from the June 23 meeting, and returned on October 12 for a second round of grand jury testimony. In this second appearance, Miller recounted details from her June 23 meeting with Libby, with the assistance of her notes.

Bob Bennett, an attorney for Miller, confirmed in an interview that Miller’s October 12 testimony “corrected” her earlier statements to the grand jury regarding the June 23 meeting. Bennett declined to provide specifics of anything Miller said during either of her grand jury appearances, except to say: “We went back on the second occasion to provide those additional notes that were found, and correct the grand jury testimony reflecting on the June 23 meeting.”

Sorry if this has been referenced here previously, couldn’t check back through all the Judy jive.

Incidentally, June 23 was the date of the “smoking gun” taped conversation between H. R. Haldeman and Richard Nixon.

sjct on October 22, 2005 at 9:58 am

It’s right out of Perry Mason.

Miller: I don’t recall meeting with Scooter before July.

Fitz: Oh really? I have a log here that shows you meeting with him in June.

Miller: Oh well, I guess I forgot about that meeting.

“I forgot” and “I don’t recall” are not get-out-of-perjury free cards.

sjct on October 22, 2005 at 9:37 am

has disappeared. It’s literally a blank white page. Did Scarborough shut him down?

In a Letter to the Editor of Vanity Fair, Scarborough took extreme exception to comments Wolcott made on his blog linking the former Congressman to the death of a young woman in his employ.

Wolcott replied: “I regret any emotional distress caused to Mr. Scarborough, his family, and the family and friends of the late Lori Klausutis.”

After losing a slander case to Roman Polansky, do you think VF pulled Wolcott’s plug to avoid a lawsuit? Or have they, possibly, settled out of court with this result as one of the stipulations?

catnip on October 22, 2005 at 11:43 am

That’s odd. I hadn’t heard anything about that case so I did some digging. Walcott wrote about it on his site on 3.30.05. Why would it come up again now? Was that LTE recent?
- sjct on October 22, 2005 at 11:59 am
  
  It appears in the current November issue, placed prominantly at the beginning of the LTE’s. I don’t keep back issues of the mag but I recall that after his blog dig, Wolcott repeated the smear in his column… must have been April or May issue.
  
  Maybe the blank slate at Wolcott’s site is just a software glitch…

Mnemosyne on October 22, 2005 at 9:37 am

I got up too early, because the brain is not fully in gear. The Guardian has a story up “Dead parrot in UK quarantine diagnosed with avian flu.” I know this a very serious matter, but I’m sorry–when I saw “dead parrot,” all I could think of was the Monty Pythons!

And on a sobering note, this account of his abduction and captivity by The Guardian’s Baghdad reporter, Rory Carroll.

Dean Pajevic on October 22, 2005 at 10:06 am

Musharraf: Supplies still needed for quake victims

(CNN) — Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Friday appealed once again for more relief supplies to be distributed to victims of the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck his country nearly two weeks ago.

A half-million tents and blankets are still needed, Musharraf told CNN. With cold weather approaching, hundreds of homeless Pakistanis will die if they do not receive temporary shelter, he said.

Musharraf told CNN that if people drop off supplies at Pakistani embassies and consulate offices worldwide, he promises to see that the supplies reach people in need. (Posted 12:43 a.m.)

CNN