The Anonymous Economist has emailed me this New York Times article which says something important about the state of the USA’s institutions:
“Last Thursday, a federal district judge ordered a New York Times reporter, Judy Miller, sent to prison. Her crime was doing her job as the founders of this nation intended. Here’s what happened and why it should concern you.”
UPDATE: Tom provides a registration-free link to a PDF of the article. Thanks, Tom.
Damian: to avoid the registration clunk, feel free to list to a pdf of the piece.
I wouldn’t waste too many tears on Judy Miller. It’s not exactly as if the people she’s protecting are saintly whistle-blowers saving the people from the nefarious government. They may have committed a serious crime which could have led to the endangerment of Plame and her contacts.
She’s a citizen as well as a f**king journalist.
This article is misleading. Her alleged crime had nothing to do with writing her stories, it has to do with obstruction of justice. If Ms. Miller was subpeoned for information concerning discussions with Enron execs, or officials at the SEC who were supposed to be watching the Enron execs, and refused, she would be in the same boat. But it is really far deeper than this, Miller is in deep shit for good reason.
The feds suspects her of having used her goverment sources to tip off an islamic charity (Global Relief Foundation) that they were under intense surveillence, giving them time to cover their tracks. GRF has since been busted anyway, but it does not absolve her of obstruction. This is the reason they are after her phone records, they want to document contact in the time frame they suspect. The Plame story is a rather weak cover that she (and several of her NYT colleagues coming to bat for her) are trying to blow as a smokescreen. If the fed’s allegations are true, she deserves a lot more than four months. I think Article III Section 3 covers it pretty well.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/29392.htm
Funnily enough, my original post contained the sneery phrase “if the NYTimes has its facts right this time”. I cut that because I wasn’t familiar enough with the details to be snide safely. This one might be worth some wider reading, thank you.