Petrelis Files

AOL Stinks; I'm Going on Hiatus

Dear Friends:

First, the good news. I feel I've done much good recently in asking pointed questions of the NY Times related to Judy Miller and persuading the paper's public editor to post Bill Keller's memo to the staff, along with Miller's reply.

This accomplishment comes on top of my work bringing attention to the deplorable situation of gays in Iran, lobbying the State Department to do more to include anti-gay abuses in its annual human rights report; filing FOIA requests for all of FEMA's contract with Michael "Drownie" Brownie and a separate FOIA request for Judy Miller's mug shot; and numerous other worthy projects and causes.

Now, the bad news. AOL has suspended my email accounts for alleged spamming. Losing email access, I feel, makes this an opportune time to take a hiatus from blogging and investigating, so I can focus on addressing my rapidly dwindling low three-digit bank account. I will not be setting up an MSN or HotMail account, which would only distract me from my pressing monetary burdens.

As many of you know, I'm not supported by any corporation, nonprofit group or even banner ads on my blog and being poor ain't fun.

The first of the month is approaching and I've got to pay my bills by finding paying work that will allow me to resume blogging and my special brand of advocacy, hopefully in the near future.

If you want to support me financially, you can do so my making a donation through my PayPal account. Just click on the "Make a Donation" icon. If you can't do that, but still want to send me a contribution, just call me for my snail mail address. The number is 415-621-6267.

As soon as I'm on my feet financially, I'll return to blogging. Till then, take care.

Best,
Michael

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NYT's Public Editor Posts Miller's Memo to Keller on Times' Site

Bravo to Barney Calame for doing what the Times leadership couldn't or wouldn't:
Making Bill Keller's memo and Judy Miller's response available for free on the paper's web site!

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bcalame - 7:54 PM ET October 22, 2005 (#18 of 18)

Bill Keller on Lessons Learned And a Judith Miller Response

In preparing the Oct. 23 public editor column about the battle to protect Judith Miller's confidential sources in the Plame leak investigation, I had asked Bill Keller, the executive editor, if he would offer his thoughts on what he would do differently if faced with the same situation again. He responded Wednesday with the e-mail message below, and disseminated much the same message to The Times's staff on Friday. Ms. Miller has responded to Mr. Keller’s note, and her e-mail message follows his here: [snip]



[Memo from Judith Miller]

Bill, I wish you had spoken to me before accusing me of misleading Phil Taubman and of being entangled with Libby in your message to the staff.

Here is what I told Don Van Natta about what I remember telling Phil in the fall of 2003. I told him, as our story on Sunday reported, that I had discussed Wilson and his wife with government officials. But I also told him that I was unaware that there was a deliberate, concerted disinformation campaign to discredit Wilson, and that if there had been, I did not think I was a target of it. After all, Libby and I had talked about many things, as you well know, and he had placed no special emphasis on the Wilson matter.

A special prosecutor has been investigating the existence of such a campaign for two years. Since I could be witness at a future trial, I am reluctant to say more on this subject now.

But I certainly never meant to mislead Phil, nor did I mislead him.

As for your reference to my "entanglement" with Mr. Libby, I had no personal, social, or other relationship with him except as a source, one among many to whom I had pledged confidentiality as a reporter for The New York Times.

I know how important it is for the paper to protect its reputation, but I have my reputation to protect also.