Disgraced and former NY Times reporter Judy Miller, who is now a paid Fox News contributor, is very worried about the state of journalism in America after reading a Ben Rhodes interview in the NY Times, in which he very acutely acknowledged the know-nothingness that permeates our media's ranks now.
“All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus,” he said. “Now they don’t. They call us to explain to them what’s happening in Moscow and Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”
In the run-up to the Iraq war, Judy Miller was one of the biggest paid shills for the Bush administration as she dutifully copied down whatever Dick Cheney's henchmen wanted her to report so their boss could go on "Meet The Press," and use her stenography as actual, sourced reporting.
In this segment on Fox News' "Happening Now," she said, "Ben Rhodes talked about how he helped sell the Iran nuclear deal to people who were very skeptical. He talked about the use of the digital media - mobilized support groups and the fact that very few news organizations even had the wherewithal to check what hey were saying. But he's proud of what he did cause it was in the interests of the country..."
Judy, that is Ben's job.
She finished up saying Ben is worried when the bully pulpit is used to help sell a bad deal. "Where are the reporters? You're not there and I can't say I disagree with him, I don't. The press is in a terrible state and that's the warning."
Judy Miller is one of the reasons that journalism has lost much of its trust by the American people.
I think I have to spell this out for her. It's the job of the president and his communication people to put out information on their policies that they think will help the US and it's the job of the journalists covering them to investigate and either substantiate or expose their policies.
Now this last statement coming from Miller's lips.just made me throw up.
Miller continued, "They are trying to issue a warning. That the media, an indispensable component, a pillar of our democracy - the media are not doing their jobs. And I think it's a really important and I know that David Samuels was trying to warn all of us, because he and I covered national security - we've seen this happen again and again."
"What happens when the next person comes along and tries to peddle lies, which is really what is starting to happen now. We're not only entitled to our own opinions, we're increasingly entitled to our own facts."
Holy sh*t! She had the gall to make this observation. She delivered Dick Cheney's made up facts on a silver platter to that warmongering buffoon, which helped sell the greatest foreign policy debacle in American history.
If she had explained how she was manipulated by the Bush White House, which caused her downfall, then she might be able to have at least have some dignity left and would have provided a real service to the American people.
You can see Judy Miller's name on the byline of the NY times story Cheney uses to promote the Iraq war.
From an article I wrote back in 2007: Moyers And Russert And Cheney Oh, My!
JONATHAN LANDAY: Now, ordinarily information-- like the aluminum tubes would-- wouldn't appear-it was top secret intelligence, and the Vice President and the National Security Advisor would not be allowed to talk about this on the Sunday talk shows. But, it appeared that morning in the NEW YORK TIMES and, therefore, they were able to talk about it.
DICK CHENEY (MEET THE PRESS NBC 9/8/02): It's now public that in fact he has been seeking to acquire and we have been able to intercept to prevent him from acquiring through this particular channel the kinds of tubes that are necessary to build a centrifuge and the centrifuge is required to take low grade uranium and enhance it into highly enriched uranium which is what you have to have in order to build a bomb."
BILL MOYERS: Did you see that performance?
BOB SIMON: I did.
BILL MOYERS: What did you think?
BOB SIMON: I thought it was remarkable.
BILL MOYERS: Why?
BOB SIMON: Remarkable. You leak a story, and then you quote the story. I mean, that's a remarkable thing to do.
BILL MOYERS: And that's only part of it. Using the identical language of the anonymous sources quoted in the TIMES, top officials were now invoking the ultimate spectre of nuclear war -- the smoking gun as mushroom cloud.
CONDOLEEZA RICE (CNN 9/8/02): There will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire a nuclear weapon. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
ERIC BOEHLERT: Those sorts of stories when they-- appear on the front page of the so called liberal NEW YORK TIMES. It absolutely comes with a stamp of approval. I mean if the NEW YORK TIMES thinks Saddam is on the precipice of-- some mushroom clouds. Then, there's really no debate.
BOB SCHEIFFER: (FACE THE NATION, CBS 9/8/02) We read in the NEW YORK TIMES today a story that says that Saddam Hussein is closer to acquiring nuclear weaponsÂ… Does he have nuclear weapons, is there a smoking gun here?
DONALD RUMSFELD: The smoking gun is an interesting phrase.
COLIN POWELL: Then as we saw in reporting just this morningÂ…
TIM RUSSERT: What specifically has he obtained that you believe will enhance his nuclear development program.
BILL MOYERS: Was it just a coincidence in your mind that Cheney came on your show and others went on the other Sunday shows, the very morning that that story appeared?
TIM RUSSERT: I don't know. The NEW YORK TIMES is a better judge of that than I am.
BILL MOYERS: No one tipped you that it was going to happen?
TIM RUSSERT: No, no. I mean-
BILL MOYERS: The-- the Cheney-- office didn't make any-- didn't leak to you that there's gonna be a big story?
TIM RUSSERT: No. No. I mean, I don't-- I don't have the-- this is, you know, on MEET THE PRESS, people come on and there are no ground rules. We can ask any question we want. I did not know about the aluminum-tube story until I read it in the NEW YORK TIMES.
BILL MOYERS: Critics point to September 8, 2002 and to your show in particular, as the classic case of how the press and the government became inseparable.
Someone in the administration plants a dramatic story in the NEW YORK TIMES And then the Vice President comes on your show and points to the NEW YORK TIMES. It's a circular, self-confirming leak.
TIM RUSSERT: I don't know how Judith Miller and Michael Gordon reported that story, who their sources were. It was a front-page story of the NEW YORK TIMES. When Secretary Rice and Vice President Cheney and others came up that Sunday morning on all the Sunday shows, they did exactly that.
TIM RUSSERT: What my concern was, is that there were concerns expressed by other government officials. And to this day, I wish my phone had rung, or I had access to them
