There have been lots of news media personalities in the news lately and I plan to address some of those over the next few days in a series I'm calling...
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly … of the Media World
I'll work backward, starting today with the ugly - those writers who should not even be published because of their journalistic sins.
Tomorrow I will write about bad media personalities who should do us all a favor and get out of the business.
On Sunday or Monday I'll write about some good members of the news industry. Yes, Virginia, there really are such creatures.
To: the Mainstream News Media
From: A Former Journalist
Regarding: Judith Miller
I sent Judith Miller a memo back in November when she and the New York Times parted company.
She never wrote back. I'd say I was hurt but that would be lying, and I leave dishonesty to people like her.
At that time I wrote:
So you have retired?
I'm hoping this means truly retired, as in leaving the profession with no plans to do this type of work for any other new organizations.
In other words, I'm hoping this is a Tonya Harding, post-Nancy Kerrigan attack-retired, where you're shamed into working outside your profession. As opposed to most news personalities who "retire" from one news organization only to then join another.
Perhaps you can go do now what you do best - help Republicans with public-relations campaigns. You retired a few days late for what would have been the perfect job in my eyes - you could have taken the place of I. Libby Lewis Jr, your source and the former chief of staff for Vice-President Dick Cheney. Wouldn't that have been true poetic justice? But while that job has been filled I'm sure there are other administration jobs that Cheney or Rove would give you in a heartbeat.
Sadly, she did the type of retiring I was afraid of, leaving one journalistic institution with whatever credibility was left after your actions cast a shadow over it, only to now be working for another.
Article comments
1 - Scott Butki
No thoughts on Miller?