Miller to NOT get "Conscience in Media" award

I am a bit surprised that some journalists actually considered her for such an award, but if you don't know the backstory* it might appear that she should get it for going to prison rather than testifying about her source and turning over her noted to the grand jury.

Here is what a journalist had to say about the proposal that she get the award:

The First Amendment is designed to prevent government interference with a free press. Miller, by shielding a government official or officials who attempted to use the press to retaliate against a whistleblower, and scare off other would-be whistleblowers, has allied herself with government interference with, and censorship of, whistleblowers. When your source IS the government, and the government is attempting to use you to target a whistleblower, the notion of shielding a source must be reconsidered. To apply standard practices regarding sources to hiding wrongdoing at the highest levels of government perverts the intent of the First Amendment."

NPR was discussing her career yesterday afternoon. I learned that she was a reporter for NPR before being hired by the New York Times. One thing they said especially stuck with me. "She sometimes had poor judgment in the reliability of the sources she trusted."

I guess that is a polite way of saying it. I would say that she was willing to print anything anyone told her if it would get her byline in the New York Times, and that she appeared to make an active partnership with the high ranking members of the Bush administration who were pushing disinformation with the intent of convincing Congress and the American public to support the unnecessary war in Iraq.

I'd say "Let her rot." She is already getting the award she earned every day she spends in prison. I wonder if her bosses at the NYT have any idea how bad she had made them all look?

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* I love using that word, especially in the context of this story. [grin]