[Previous entry: "Newspaper Stands by Iran Oil-Threat Story"] [Next entry: "Colin MacCabe: Why I'm tearing up my Labour party card"]

10/02/2005:

"No heroine's welcome for reporter who spent her summer in jail"

...Unfortunately for the paper [NY Times] more questions than answers have been thrown up by Ms Miller's abrupt volte-face.

Should she be celebrated as a media martyr who stood up for the right of reporters to protect the identities of sources? Or is this to do with her - and the paper's - mistaken reporting before the Iraq war of Saddam Hussein's purported stash of weapons of mass destruction?

...In March 2004, the paper published an astonishing mea culpa, singling out six articles that had given credence to the administration's claims about weapons of mass destruction without sufficient evidence. Four of those were written by Ms Miller.

...There is much still to be explained. It has also been reported that among those who went to visit Ms Miller in prison was the controversial US envoy to the UN, John Bolton. No one knows what his involvement in this affair might be.

Critics speculate the following, however: Ms Miller's reputation was in shreds after the Iraq invasion. Going to prison on behalf of journalists everywhere provided a good distraction.
independent.co.uk