Judy Miller and the March to War

Arianna Huffington has an excellent article suggesting that Judy Miller is sitting in jail not on the principle of protecting her sources, but because she really does have something to hide. We have forgotten that her shoddy articles were instrumental in garnering support for the war, and Joe Wilson's op-ed piece was in direct conflict with everything she had written about weapons of mass destruction. She had a lot to gain from helping to discredit him. Below the article, a commenter reminds us that Miller was one of the recipients of an anthrax letter post-9/11...

With all the talk about the media's failure in the run-up to war, we forget what the press has at stake in situations like these. The media can hardly afford to be too critical of the government, even in the absence of coercion or dirty tricks to manipulate stories. In times of war, the press has a lot to lose if they end up on the wrong side of public opinion. If a war goes well, the public will support it, and will not forgive those who "sided with the enemy". And to be sure, if the Iraq war had been won easily, we would not be talking about its justification today.

I remember in early 2002 talk of war with Iraq in the media was odd in that it sounded like a foregone conclusion, long before any real reasons had been presented to believe it was necessary. Where was this coming from? In hindsight, it seems almost obvious that in the backrooms, whispering campaigns were being pursued amongst the press and government officials to let everyone know that, whether justified or not, this war was going to happen. The media had better get on board, or they were going to look bad in the end.