Like the common cold, I don't think former NYT reporter Judy Miller is ever going to leave us. She back in the news because a pal of hers has written a highly favorable retelling of Miller's twisted tale for Vanity Fair.
For a superlative critique of the profile, its author and the woman at the center of it all, check out Arianna Huffington's latest blog posting:
There are three fundamental problems with Marie Brenner's 15-page piece on Plamegate and Judy Miller in the April Vanity Fair (hitting newsstands tomorrow):
1.) It's laughably biased. Brenner is a close friend of Miller -- she co-hosted a dinner for her on July 4th before Miller headed to jail, visited her at the Alexandria Detention Center, partied with her after her release, and is longtime friends with Miller's husband, who used to be Brenner's editor.
The article is nothing more than a massive attempt to rehab the disgraced reporter.
But Brenner doesn't mention that she even knows Miller until 7 pages into the article and doesn't mention that they are friends until 11 pages in (long after painting a highly favorable picture of Judy as a misunderstood victim/martyr/heroine). [...]
Right on, Arianna! You sure know how to point out journalistic and political b.s. when you see it.
Reading Arianna's post got me thinking about Miller and her blog, which has been dormant for quite some time and that strikes me as odd, given that Miller is no longer doing stenography for her powerful pals in the pages of the New York Times. She has lots of time to accept awards and deliver speeches on her bravery and battles for freedom of the press, right?
Of course right! Her last message, dated Nov. 29, is all about receiving an honor from an Italian journalists' union and traveling to Italy:
I have just returned from Italy where the Unione Nazionale Cronisti Italiani, UNCI, Italy’s largest union representing some 2,000 news reporters and editors, honored me for helping to preserve a free press by spending 85 days in jail to protect the confidentiality of sources.
On Monday, I traveled to the beautiful seaside town of Viareggio, in Tuscany, to accept the tribute at UNCI’s annual meeting, which was attended by almost 200 reporters and editors from throughout Italy. UNCI is Italy’s the most important union for news reporters and editors in print, radio, and television.
“We know her case is controversial,” Illaria Bonuccelli, the union’s vice president, told the journalists at this year’s meeting and awards ceremony. “But we wanted to pay tribute to Judy Miller’s sacrifice and her efforts to protect the critical relationship between reporters and their sources.”
Ms. Bonuccelli, herself an award-winning investigative reporter for the daily paper, Il Tirreno, said this was the first time that the union had ever honored a foreign reporter.
“Our members are often sued, threatened, and sometimes sent to jail,” she told me. “So we understand the sacrifice you made for the free flow of information.”
If you're still following Miller's saga, you owe it to yourself to visit her site and see how boring it is. I'm surprised she hasn't reported on the Vanity Fair article and linked to it, knowing how much she likes to promote herself and her legacy.
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