Times May Apologize for Miller's Stories on WMDs, Shafer of Slate Reports

[BurtWorm]

http://slate.msn.com/id/2101124/

Judy's Turn To Cry
The New York Times prepares an "Editors' Note" about its prewar WMD reporting.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Tuesday, May 25, 2004, at 2:39 PM PT



Noted with interest
Sources inside and close to the New York Times say that the newspaper is preparing an "Editors' Note" that will reassess its pre-Iraq War coverage, particularly its coverage of weapons of mass destruction. The note is said to address the reporting failures of Times staffers, including Judith Miller, and could be published as early as tomorrow (Wednesday, May 26).

On a separate track, Times Public Editor Daniel Okrent has been calling Times staffers to discuss the WMD issue, fueling speculations that he, too, will write about the subject in his Sunday column. Okrent and Times Executive Editor Bill Keller had previously declined to audit Miller's WMD coverage. Okrent said he didn't wanted to get bogged down in evaluating the paper's past deeds as he began his public editorship; Keller cited both cost-benefit analysis and his faith in Miller's reportorial abilities in demurring.

Miller's work on WMD in the Times deserves special scrutiny because so many of her sensational stories never panned out?from a December 2001 piece about now-discredited Iraqi defector Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, who claimed inside knowledge about a score of Iraq WMD programs and storage facilities, to a December 2002 scoop about a possible Russia-Iraq smallpox collaboration, to a January 2003 eve-of-war piece reiterating the defectors' stories of Iraqi WMD. Miller's credulous reporting turned absolutely hyperbolic when she joined the search for WMD on the ground in Iraq, embedding with the U.S. military's Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha. In an April 21, 2003, piece, Miller claimed that an Iraqi scientist had led the military to a cache of precursor compounds for a banned "toxic agent." She told The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer the next day that the scientist was more than a "smoking gun" in the WMD search, he was the "silver bullet." But by July 2003, still no WMD had been found in Iraq. Instead of blaming the defectors and inside sources who had led her astray, Miller put the onus on the poor logistics of the weapons search! (See this "The Scoops That Melted," a "Press Box" from last year for more details.)....

[StephNW4Clark]

1. I can't believe it. FINALLY!

[burythehatchet]

2. Is public humliation enough?

Not in my opinion.

[lolly]

3. Apologize to whom?

Just wondering how they're going to tell the families of the dead Iraquis and the 800+ dead Americans "oops. my bad. Never Mind!"

I'm serious. Real reporting from these clowns could've stopped this mass slaughter. How do they apologize? And why is this Republican groupie who calls herself a "reporter" still working there?

[Hornito]

4. Miller is a traitor, and just as guilty as Bush and the neocons

for our being in Iraq. She should not only be fired for incompetence, she should also face trial for treason. The 1st Amendment does not protect those who knowingly disseminate propaganda that leads to war and death.

[teryang]

5. Is the handwriting on the wall

...putting the fear of god into the blasphemers?

Or are they just getting ready for next round of fool the gullible people again before November game?

[gratuitous]

6. Apologize? As in "Oops, I made a boo boo"?!

For the love of Mike, I don't think an apology quite cuts it, you know? The toll on our beloved country from this ill-advised imperialistic oil grab is incalculable. We have squandered whatever good feelings and camaraderie we had from the September 11 attacks, we alienated many of our best friends and allies, we have spent the Treasury into bankruptcy, we will deny our citizens basic care, and we have an out-of-control maniac who thinks he can run the country any way he darn well pleases.

And the Times actively aided and abetted all of this and more with its dishonest and incurious reportage. So now they want to say, "Oops"?! I want to see heads on pikes outside their office! I want to see torches, staves and pitchforks wielded by an angry mob!

"Oops" my sweet Aunt Fanny!

[calimary]

7. NO SHIT!!!!

Hell just froze over. At least one tiny corner of it. SONUVAGUN!!!

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. NOW??? they want to apologize?

They should never have printed her crap in the first place. I'm glad they're going to do it, but it should never have happened. The media and their lust for the "shock and awe" was DISGUSTING.

[salin]

9. wonder if she is even able to see, yet, that she had been duped?