Jay Rosen on Judith Miller ruining the NYTimes
... I think "The New York Times" has lost the capacity to tell the truth about itself in this story. It's completely overidentified itself and the majesty of the institution with Judy Miller and what its own people describe as her personal decision making. We know that other reporters in similar circumstances were able and thought it wise to work out deals with the prosecutor. And here we have this great institution allowing itself to be, in effect, muzzled by Miller, her decision that her waivers weren't good enough, her decision to change her mind after the waivers were now good enough, and it's just inexplicable, as Michael said, that beyond reporting about the Miller case itself, "The New York Times" has apparently shut down, either implicitly or explicitly, all its columnists. It hasn't done pieces looking at the state of the law and what the Miller case has done to press law. Nobody has been able to say a word about it. And I think that a big mistake in judgment was made when "The Times" threw its weight behind the decision making of an individual.... And I think that they began to assimilate this case to the great history of "The New York Times" resisting government encroachment -- in the Pentagon Papers, in many other cases -- and they saw this as another chapter in the glorious fight of "The New York Times" against government power. But the facts of the case are so ambiguous, and it kind of doesn't pass the smell test in a lot of ways. And that's why it was unwise to suspend reporting while Judy Miller's case played out. It isn't the First Amendment drama that they think it is. It's a much more complicated, darker and ultimately dubious tale, and that has suspended journalism at "The New York Times."