Story location: http://archive.pressthink.org/2005/10/21/brk_pt.html

Rosen is Unplugged for a While

Taking a break to finish a book. Back in December '05.

Since October 2, I have written seven PressThink posts about the New York Times and Judith Miller. (See the list below.) Today’s post, Thanks for the Link, New York Times. Now Please Answer My Question, will be my last for a while. (Of course, others should try to get the answers I was seeking.)

I’m taking a break from blogging to finish my book, which has a new title: By the People. Rather than say “blogging will be light…” I thought it was best to stop until the book is completed. (I may have some guest bloggers.) I will be back, but not before December 1. I hope that regular readers—and those who are recently arrived—will check back. The forum will resume, and if it deserves to thrive it will.

Thanks to all for the 1.25 million visits so far. See you soon.

by Jay Rosen on the Judith Miller case…

• After Miller Let There Be Light. (Huffington Post, Nov. 10) “Judith Miller may be the only investigative reporter alive who doesn’t care if you understand, because she does. She’s not aware of it when her stories do not add up. They cohere for her. In this sense she violates not the rules of journalism, but the reason we have it.”

• Will the Times Ever Tell Us If Judy Miller Had a Security Clearance? (Huffington Post, Nov. 8) “In fact we know more than enough to be interested and alarmed, but nowhere near enough to draw any conclusions. In my view we have no reason to trust what Miller says; if the Times lets her explanations stand, it will have given a publicly unintelligible reply.”

• “We Regret Nothing.” Times Editorial Page Breaks Silence on Miller Case. (Huffington Post, Oct. 29) “There was a break today in the silence that had fallen over the New York Times editorial page in the matter of Judith Miller. We who received a message from the editors. The message is: ‘We were right along, we’re still right, not a thing has happened to change our view, and Miller’s critics—including most of the journalists who work at the Times— can go get stuffed.’”

• Thanks for the Link, New York Times. Now Please Answer My Question. (Oct. 21): “It went to spokesperson Catherine Mathis, Oct. 17: Did Judy Miller have special clearances to see classified information? If she did, who knew? Here’s my case for why readers deserve an answer. No progress so far.”

• Times Report on Judith Miller: Key Moments, My Comments, and What the Blogs Say (Oct. 15): “Here are my initial annotations of the big report. Key passages and brief comments. Plus my eight paragraph summary of the case and its press think.”

• The Hypothesis: Notes on the Judy Miller Situation (Oct. 14): “Hypothesis is Judy Miller won’t talk to the Times reporters and help them produce a truthful account.”

• The Times at Bay: Armchair Critic Speculates (Oct. 12): “Everything has to wait until the moment when Judy ‘can be expected to tell what happened,’ as Landman so carefully put it. When it comes and she still refuses the hierarchy will turn a whiter shade of pale. Key people will then know their investment in Miller went terribly wrong.”

• The Shimmer: Missing Data at the New York Times (Oct. 10): “Whereas a week ago, I was calling it ‘Judy Miller’s New York Times’ to emphasize how she seemed to be the actor-in-chief, I now think it’s more than that: a bigger unknown is affecting things. Not only is the Times not operating properly, it’s unable to say to readers: here’s why we’re not.”

• News Comes in Code: Judy Miller’s Return to the Times (Oct. 4): “Just one man’s opinion, but now is a good time to say it: The New York Times is not any longer—in my mind—the greatest newspaper in the land. Nor is it the base line for the public narrative that it once was. Some time in the last year or so I moved the Washington Post into that position…”

• Judith Miller and Her Times (Oct. 2): “Notice how it affects what the New York Times, a great institution, can tell the public, and yet Judy’s decision was hers: personal when she made it (her conditions weren’t met), personal when she changed it (her conditions were met.) That’s what I mean by Miller’s Times.”