Miller, Former Times Reporter–Hyprocrite Attacks Assange

Moreover, if Miller—and her other subservient to power media colleagues—had taken half of the precautions Assange did, perhaps, the war in Iraq could’ve been avoided.
We’re wasting trillions on these wars and for what?

[Speaking Truth To Power]

So, Judith Miller thinks Wikileaks’ founder, Julian Assange is a “bad journalist.”

As the saying goes, isn’t this like “the pot calling the kettle black,” given Miller’s journalistic faux pas? Recently, on Fox News, Miller criticized Assange’s journalism, in reference to his handling and publishing of leaked classified documents. According to Miller, Assange is guilty of shoddy journalism “because he didn’t care at all about attempting to verify the information that he was putting out or determine whether or not it would hurt anyone.”

According to her, Assange is guilty of not fact-checking and vetting the leaked information he published. This is a shocking statement from someone who epitomizes lazy, lap-dog journalism–someone who is, partially, responsible for the wool placed over the eye of the American people that took this nation into a disastrous war. We’ll explore that more in a minute.

Assange was arrested on Dec. 7, 2010, after Wikileaks, in November 2010, released an embarrassing trove of classified diplomatic cables to the U.S. State Department. It’s alleged he committed sex crimes, in Sweden, against two women.

Curiously, the claims of these crimes came after Wikileaks released, in April 2010, the “Collateral Murder” video which showed the killings of several innocent Iraqis and two Reuters newsmen in an American helicopter strike. In July, 2010, Wikileaks also published the Afghan War Diaries a compilation of nearly 77, 000 documents about the Iraq War.

The Afghan War Diaries paint a starkly different picture than the upbeat assessments Bush’s White House sold the American people.

Interestingly, Assange was initially cleared, in August, 2010, by Stockholm’s Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne. Assange is currently free on bail, in England but is under house arrest. He has an extradition hearing scheduled for February 7 and 8 in London, to determine if he should be extradited to Sweden.

Some of his supporters fear, if he’s extradited, Sweden will hand him over to be prosecuted for espionage in America. Private first class Bradley Manning is being held and is assumed to be the source of the materials given to Wikileaks.

Currently, Miller works for several right-wing publications and organizations including Newsmax—and is now a “contributor” over at that shining example of journalism: Fox News. She is also a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. The former New York Times reporter—and Pulitzer Prize winner—receded from the spotlight after her jailing in the Valerie Plame scandal.

Valerie Plame, a CIA agent, had her identity exposed because her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson had debunked the Bush Administration’s lie that Saddam Hussein tried to buy “yellowcake” uranium from Niger. We still don’t know Miller’s role in that treasonous outrage, even though there’s no longer any reason to protect Scotter Libby, VP Dick Cheney’s former aide, who is known to have been her source.

Moreover, Miller’s reporting, on Iraq, is agreed by many to have been instrumental in convincing Americans that Saddam Hussein was a terror threat. Miller’s reporting was based entirely on information coming out of Cheney’s office. Yet, while she saw it fit not to investigate the claims coming from these Bush Administration officials Miller now tells us that Assange is a “bad journalist” because “he didn’t care at all about attempting to verify the information that he was putting out.”

Wasn’t it Miller who said “My job isn’t to assess the government’s information and be an independent intelligence analyst myself. My job is to tell readers of The New York Times what the government thought about Iraq’s arsenal?”

Shouldn’t that role be left to the White House spokespersons? Is this Pulitzer Prize winning journalist that obtuse, or, is she just a brazen hypocrite? If she doesn’t have to “assess the government’s information” why should Assange have to “verify the information he was putting out?”

Apparently, Miller wants to hold others to a standard she sees fit to ignore herself. Moreover, if Miller—and her other subservient to power media colleagues—had taken half of the precautions Assange did, perhaps, the war in Iraq could’ve been avoided.

Miller’s comments are truly ironic, because, she represents the face of a failed journalism that makes Assange’s and Wikileaks’ work necessary. By now, we should all be clear the Bush White House—with the help of a kowtowed Congress—led us into a disastrous decade of war abroad and suffering at home.

However, the Bush White house was facilitated by those in the corporate media –who like to refer to themselves as “mainstream” media– who were derelict in their duty of exposing the lies that led us into war.

The economic devastation this nation now faces could’ve been avoided. But, journalism’s stars like Miller don’t do their jobs and, so, now most of America suffers.

We’re wasting trillions on these wars and for what? Miller, and her friends in the establishment media, can continue to attack Julian
Assange all they want. They helped create him–and ironically, The New York Times has been the primary beneficiary of his leaks, at one time, publishing them almost on a daily basis.


“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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