Today
Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer, has an interesting tidbit that is very revealing regarding Judith Miller and how she operates.
In his article he sez:
....
Craig Pyes, a former contract writer for the Times who teamed up with Miller for a series on al Qaeda, complained about her in a December 2000 memo to Times editors and asked that his byline not appear on one piece.
How often does a writer ask that his/her byline not appear?
More below the fold...
"I'm not willing to work further on this project with Judy Miller," wrote Pyes, who now writes for the Los Angeles Times. He added: "I do not trust her work, her judgment, or her conduct. She is an advocate, and her actions threaten the integrity of the enterprise, and of everyone who works with her. . . . She has turned in a draft of a story of a collective enterprise that is little more than dictation from government sources over several days, filled with unproven assertions and factual inaccuracies," and "tried to stampede it into the paper."
Pyes said yesterday he had no problem with the articles as published, which helped win one of two Pulitzer Prizes he shared at the paper. Miller, who is traveling, did not respond to a phone message, and her attorney declined to comment.
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It appears that the NYT's Editors and Publishers knew or should have known what a problem this woman was and the lengths she would go to to publish a story. Not only did they not take any action to rein her in, they appear to have given her free rein and, thus, they were complicit in furthering her missions.
IMHO, Judith Miller and the NYT deserve all the bad press they are getting. If heads don't roll at the NYT the public needs to "vote" them into the obscurity they deserve.