Posted 4:59 PM by steve

The nasty back and forth over at the NYT is obviously evidence of the Times quickly moving to distance themselves from Judy Miller... how else to explain not only the level of animosity on the part of Keller, Abramson, Calame and Dowd, but also the timing of their attacks on Miller?

If I were a betting man, I would put my money on their thinking that Miller is going to be exposed as something other than the stereotypical valiant reporter doing her best to get to the bottom of a crucially important story.... and, given how quickly the Times has mobilized its attack team (Executive Editor, DC Bureau Chief, Public Editor and Weekly Whiner) to attack Miller, my guess is the Times is expecting this information to come out of whatever Fitzgerald has got up his sleeve and they're trying to get ahead of Fitzgerald in order to pre-empt industry criticism of Miller and their supervision of her.

Of course, Miller isn't taking this laying down (or is it lying down?). She's firing back, perhaps to in an attempt to save her reputation, but also perhaps because she's thinking she may need legal representation (as witness or defendant, who knows?) during whatever trials come out of Fitzgerald indictments and she knows she will have zero chance of getting the Times (Pinch) to pay for her attorneys if the Keller attack squad is able to render her radioactive through their attacks on her credibility.

Of course, since I don't think Fitzgerald is going to indict anyone, then it's possible the Times is just attacking her out of good old fashioned jealousy and spite... but that would be out of character for the good folks at the Times, right?