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Monday, October 20, 2008

In 2002 and 2003, Judy Miller of the New York Times and the Fox News Channel were working different sides of the street for the same cause. Rupert Murdoch's FNC was openly rallying Americans behind a flag-waving push to invade Iraq, helping to convince millions that Saddam Hussein must have had something to do with 9/11, But the Times' Miller was really a more valuable cog in the push for the war, helping to rally the Beltway elite behind hysterical stories about aluminum tubes and non-existent WMDs.

Ultimately, the controversy over Miller's bogus journalism forced her out at the Times -- very small justice for her important role in fomenting a war that has killed more than 4,000 Americans and countless more Iraqi civilians while driving our nation deeper into bottomless debt, with little to show for any of this.

Thus, the least surprising journalism news story ever:

Fox News is expected to announce today the hiring of a new contributor, a veteran national security correspondent who has shared a Pulitzer Prize.

Her name is Judith Miller, and she is nothing if not controversial. Miller left the New York Times in 2005 after testifying in the trial of former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby that he had leaked her information about a CIA operative. Miller's conduct in the case, which led to her serving 85 days in jail for initially refusing to testify, drew rebukes from the Times executive editor and some of her colleagues.

In the run-up to the Iraq war, Miller reported stories on the search for Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be untrue, some of which were cited in a Times editor's note acknowledging the flawed coverage. Miller, now with the conservative Manhattan Institute, wrote when she left the paper that she had "become a lightning rod for public fury over the intelligence failures that helped lead our country to war."

Miller will be an on-air analyst and will write for Fox's Web site. "She has a very impressive résumé," says Senior Vice President John Moody. "We've all had stories that didn't come out exactly as we had hoped. It's certainly something she's going to be associated with for all time, and there's not much anyone can do about that, but we want to make use of the tremendous expertise she brings on a lot of other issues. . . . She has explained herself and she has nothing to apologize for."

"We've all had stories that didn't come out exactly as we had hoped."!!!!

Have we all had stories that turned out like this?

Judy Miller and Fox News teaming up? I think those two are already bound together, for eternity.

Posted by Will Bunch @ 9:40 AM  Permalink | 26 comments
Comments   
Posted 10:55 AM, 10/20/2008
CD75
Sounds like a someone is jealous that Judy Miller actually has had two real jobs rather then an being a cut and paster at an obsure blog.
Comment removed.
Posted 10:56 AM, 10/20/2008
jmc
"Jmc posts to indicate that somehow the reduced violence recently suddenly un-injures the injured, calls the dead back to living". Well, it worked for Bill Ayres.
Posted 11:02 AM, 10/20/2008
RG
If it weren't for Will's "obscure" "cut and paste" blog for a "dying company", some very angry people would have nowhere to vent.
Posted 11:13 AM, 10/20/2008
Bud Fox
It's truly odd to watch FNC and the other MSM outlets point fingers at each other, when they are each equally terrible. Bunch/Attytood=terrible from the left, FNC=terrible from the right. Can't everyone just grow up?
Comment removed.
Posted 11:32 AM, 10/20/2008
montani semper liberi
I'm not seeing any real attempt here to defend Miller's actions (just the usual shooting blanks at the messenger). However, it's ironic that Will's detractors mention Miller's Pulitzer in 2002 (actually she shared it with other NYT staff reporters). The Right's obsession with Iraq continues to leave us vulnerable to the real threat that those prize-winning stories so thoroughly explained.
Posted 11:48 AM, 10/20/2008
barkleyg
This is a home run for Republicans, and FAUX News. Judy the shill will say "high up Republican sources tell me ...." in hushed and scary tones, and in the next instance interview the source, without saying he is the source. The unidentified source's story is validated by some famous Republican, who doesn't let any one else know that he was the source, verifying his own BS to all of America with Judy waging her tongue in the background.
Comment removed.
Posted 12:13 PM, 10/20/2008
GreyHippie
Ehh, FNC is exactly where a reporter with a blatantly political agenda belongs. I much prefer her spouting her "scoops" from Libby/Feith/Chalabi/Pipes on Fox, than salting them in fantasy tales of aluminum tubes and baseball-capped Iraqi scientists leading troops to buried WMD in the NYT. I only hope she doesn't unleash her paranoia and huge ego into a feud with Rachel Maddow. The Olbermann-O'Reilly stuff is juvenile enough without the girls getting into it.
Posted 12:21 PM, 10/20/2008
pagoda
b.atkinson- Nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hay hay hay, good-bye!
Posted 12:29 PM, 10/20/2008
James TL
Judith Miller is a liar. I'll never have to read what she says anymore because I ignore Fox news. I'll stick to those "lefty" media outlets ABC, CBS, NBC. You know, the ones that stick to that annoying notion, the truth.
Comment removed.
Posted 01:06 PM, 10/20/2008
Captain Awesome
"We had meetings every morning where they'd go over your quota; they'd yell at you if you were low,"...So, managers are bullies for holding employees accountable for failing to meet their job responsibilities? The managers are evil because they told under- and non-performers that they could be suspended or fired for not meeting performance standards?
Posted 01:20 PM, 10/20/2008
Politburo
Judy's not gonna have many sources in a few months.. I wonder what value Fox thinks they're getting.
About Will Bunch
Will's book: Learn about it here and purchase it here.

Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.

E-mail Will by clicking here.

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