Friday, October 21, 2005

Judy Duranty

So says Jack Shafer at Slate. Perhaps a campaign to get Miller's Pulitzer revoked is in order.

Shafer also points out the obvious:

Conceding in the Times piece that her WMD reporting was "totally wrong," Miller proves she doesn't understand how journalism works when she says, "The analysts, the experts and the journalists who covered them -- we were all wrong. If your sources are wrong, you are wrong. I did the best job that I could." That is a lie. Reporters aren't conduits through which sources pour information into newspapers. And sources aren't to blame if a reporter gets a story wrong. A real reporter tests his sources' findings against other evidence in hopes of discovering the truth, something Miller was apparently loath to do.

I'd go further. When sources lie to you, their lies are the story. And when a writer colludes with sources to spread lies, that is the story.

But those are two stories the Times will never tell.

Update: Arriana Huffington, writing from the future ("10.22.2005"), piles on.

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