Sunday, June 22, 2014

Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller upset that the media keeps wanting to "beat up on who was responsible for the Iraq War." Yes, how unreasonable of them.

Courtesy of Media Matters:

 ON SCOTT: There has been Iraq fatigue among the public in this country for a long time. What about the media? 

 JUDITH MILLER: Not the media. Not so, because the media still loves to beat up on who was responsible for the Iraq War, and who is to blame for the current controversy, the current crisis, and that is not helpful, Jon. What we should be doing, what the media should be doing, is encouraging everyone who has a view of what to do now in Iraq to come forward and to discuss it rationally. But they're doing the opposite. They're trying to shut down people like Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, all of the, quote, "neo-conservatives," who brought us this war. It's not helpful.

You know usually I would be shocked that a so-called reporter would say something like this out loud.  But this is Judith "They're using aluminum tubes to make atomic weapons in Iraq" Miller.

She was one of the "journalists" who helped the Bush Administration sell the war to America, and she has almost as muhc blood on her hands as Dick Cheney and George Bush.

Here is what Salon wrote about her in 2005: 

Miller was a consistent critic of Saddam’s regime, but before 1998 she was capable of making nuanced judgments about the problem it posed for the United States. At some point after that, she apparently began to believe that she, with her prescient expertise about WMD and radical Islam, and her hawkish and neocon sources were right. This was when her fateful decline began. A minor scientist and sometime college teacher such as Khidhir Hamza became “the highest ranking scientist” to defect from Iraq. She relayed complaints from Gucci revolutionaries like Chalabi that they had been left out of the loop by the Clinton administration, and retailed Iraq National Congress tall tales to her unsuspecting audience. By the late 1990s, she had laid the ground for her subsequent path, of becoming stenographer to a motley crew of neoconservative hawks and Iraqi expatriate wheelers and dealers. The aluminum tubes story, in particular, which she co-wrote and which helped pave the way to war, will likely be taught in journalism classes for years as a textbook study of flawed reporting. In the end, Miller’s decline seems due more to professional ambition than ideological conviction — although her own beliefs clearly grew closer to the neocons’. 

“While Miller might not have intended to march in lockstep with these hawks, she was caught up in an almost irresistible cycle,” Foer writes. “Because she kept printing the neocon party line, the neocons kept coming to her with huge stories and great quotes, constantly expanding her access.” 

In the end, it seems that Miller will go down in history not so much as a true believer as a useful idiot.

I think "useful idiot" might be the kindest thing that can be said about Judith Miller. 

In fact her reporting was so bad, that the New York Times had to officially apologize for it in 2004.

And of course she could not be more wrong about what a reporter's job is concerning Iraq, and what happens going forward.

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:21 AM

    These monsters will never admit that it was a ruse from the start. It was blatantly evident then and even more so now. I lost every ounce of respect I had for Colin Powell, and for those who disparage Hillary? I raise you one Condi Rice.

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  2. I wish she would STFU. She's a big reason that I don't trust the NY Times as the paper of record.

    Plus she's another war at any cost conservative the talk shows drag out to hear her worn out talking points.

    Please shut up already, you were wrong about Iraq. What you have to say is a bunch of false old sh*t. The American public are tired of her and other Bush/Cheney wars.

    Yet now and somehow she and her war at any cost friends are victims. Whine, whine, whine.

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  3. "...what the media should be doing, is encouraging everyone who has a view of what to do now in Iraq to come forward and to discuss it rationally."
    --------------------------------------
    Really, Judith? Then why are only the same stale old white republican and neocon gasbags that got us into the war being asked to appear on the news and talk shows?

    Talk to everyone with a view? No. We should talk to everyone who is qualified to discuss the issue. We shouldn't talk to five year old children about Iraq, and we shouldn't waste time talking to the people that willfully and purposefully lied us into the mess, inexcusably thinking that their actions would turn out well (for them, anyway), and have shown that they have not learned anything since then.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:09 AM

      Spot on, Nefer! Why I refuse to watch any Sunday political shows as well.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous5:34 AM

    Well, since Judith Miller was doing her best to beat the war drums for the Bush Administration I'm not surprised that she doesn't want a discussion of who was responsible for it. She bears some responsibility as does her employer at the time, "The New York Times." I don't think she's ever expressed any regret for her over-eagerness not to do any investigative reporting way back then.
    Beaglemom

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  5. Anonymous6:51 AM

    She and the Bush administration have the blood of more than 4,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis on their hands.

    And they don't feel a moment's guilt or responsibility for it.

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  6. Anonymous7:52 AM

    They're trying to shut down people like Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, all of the, quote, "neo-conservatives," who brought us this war. It's not helpful.
    ================================================
    Really? They were so helpful before. Right! So let's let them do it again? What hogwash!

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  7. Anonymous8:29 AM

    Talk about cold core chilling, Gryphen:

    Virginia man arrested in murder plot against wife, writes on Facebook, “Gotta love the gun show loophole”

    http://freakoutnation.com/2014/06/22/virginia-man-arrested-in-murder-plot-against-wife-writes-on-facebook-gotta-love-the-gun-show-loophole/

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  8. Anonymous8:43 AM

    Republicans remind me of those plate-spinning acts frequently featured on shows like the Ed Sullivan Hour as they are able to keep my mind going in circles just listening to them try to spin their behavior into gold while blaming the left for all that ails this Nation.

    The headline on my home page this morning concerns Bobby Jindal whining that the left is attacking religion so completely that a 'rebellion' is brewing within the right. Isn't this what THEY have accused our President of doing? A man who doesn't look quite like them, a man raised on anti-American cultural ideals who wants to mold us in his image, a man who doesn't 'think' , you know, like 'rill Americans', a man who wants to 'destroy' our country.

    Well here we have a little anchor baby, who doesn't 'look' like most of us 'rill Americans', who was raised by non-Christians but claims to be xtian, who has risen to somewhat powerful political rank sufficient to change policy is now fomenting and endorsing rebellion in the U.S.

    Gee, one would think that a party who bases their argument against President Obama for these very same fears would be a little nervous about one in their ranks hoping to bring their actual claims and predictions to fruition. Guess the old IOKIYAR isn't a joke after all.

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  9. Anonymous9:14 AM

    Miserable little enabler. Why do these idiots keep popping up like boils on the national buttocks?

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  10. Caroll Thompson9:58 AM

    Yes, Judith has a lot of blood on her hands, but she still doesn't get it. How can she live with herself knowing that she reported lies and our guys died.

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  11. Anonymous10:49 AM

    The Manhattan Institute, of which Judith Miller is apparently an adjunct fellow, is a right-wing think tank. No surprises there!
    Beaglemom

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  12. Boscoe11:02 AM

    The self-serving insincere sociopathic assholery displayed by these two women is staggering. How stupid do they think we are that we'll buy the premise that Cheney and Mini-Cheney were just trying to help?

    They rose up from the underworld to spew venom on Obama, put the blame on him for the Cheney Administration's failures (yeah, I don't recognize Shrub, he wasn't in charge of anything) and then suggest that the best thing would be to do the same thing all over again.

    So yes, after the world picked its jaw up off the floor, it told them to STFU and pointed out how their credibility on the subject is questionable at best due to how they were wrong about everything in the first place.

    Only a conservative could twist that into "unfair attacks on Cheney."

    ANyway, gotta love the hypocrisy. After six years of trying to blame Obama for Cheney's failures, they're now getting bent out of shape that people are finally blaming Cheney for Cheney's failures.

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  13. Naturally, Miller is appearing on Fox with an aura of credibility, the one arena that itself has never endeavored to bring nobility to journalism.

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  14. Anonymous2:10 PM

    They forgot to list her prison record, which is another sterling accomplishment of stellar Fox contributors, like Oliver North, and G. Gordon Liddy.....

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  15. Anita Winecooler5:38 PM

    Let me put on my psychic hat. I'm opening the answer envelope and the index card says "Not just yes, but HELL YES".
    Now I'm opening the question envelope and the index card asks

    "Is that idiot stark raving mad?

    This stance is absolute lunacy. The quote neocons end quote have done nothing but get in the way, obstruct and make fun of our President. Darth Cheyney and his lovely daughter, lizzie are hogging up perfectly useful oxygen giving advice no one should ever take, and Judith thinks they're right?
    The Iraq War was an unjustified war of vengeance against a sovereign country whose leader "tried to kill my daddy" *GWBush's words. Al Quida wasn't there until AFTER the war started. Judith, Dick and his lovely daughter lizzie were wrong then, wrong now, and will be wrong forever.

    A lot of these idiots are calling for bombing, that's the last thing we need because it screams we're taking sides.

    Here's a thought, send Dick Cheyney, Judith, and lizzie, Dicks mini me daughter on a secret mission to Iraq. Those people will greet them with flowers and thank them for freeing them of that tyrant, Saddam Hussein. Take President GWBush with you so he can paint portraits of the happy occasion.

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