re: Miller and the NY Times
There's a crucial media angle that I haven't seen discussed in detail anywhere (though we all know the MSM has been eager to manipulate this story) - the extent to which the NY Times and all of the MSM were desperate, absolutely desperate, for this story to be true.
There's a very telling passage in Joe Wilson's book, in which he describes going to meet a NY Times editor for lunch in the days right after his July 6, 2003 op-ed had appeared, and got a hero's welcome - they absolutely loved him for helping to slay the Bush/Rove dragon, as they thought..... when the editor introduces him to some reporter the guy says to Wilson "So you're the guy who saved this paper!" or words to that effect. Of course, nothing Wilson says is trustworthy, but the point of his little anecdote was that it was right after the Jayson Blair fiasco and the Times people were looking at Wilson as their salvation, as a key story that would blow the Bush administration out of the water and restore the luster of the NY Times. This helps to explain why they are so desperate to prevent Miller from showing that the whole Rove scandal is a set up.... I'm sure there was a similar attitude at WaPo and other outlets....
The MSM, most of all the NY Times, were/are desperate to pump up Wilson - it's a parallel to the Rathergate/Burkett scandal. I know this won't surprise anyone here, but from Wilson's first-hand account of his visit to the NY Times in early July 2003 we have to consider the vast extent to which the MSM, and especially the NY Times, have been willing to subvert all journalistic and political ethics to protect this story.
Jayson Blair is a piker compared to the editors of the NY Times....
Thanks for adding Wilson's anecdote!
Excellent observation. Underscores our suspicions and makes their desperate attempts to breathe life into this story more rational (in a thoroughly insane way).
He saved the paper?