Text of E-Mail Sent to The New York Times Staff by Its Executive Editor

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Text of E-Mail Sent to The New York Times Staff by Its Executive Editor Skip directly to the full story. The Associated Press

Published: Oct 21, 2005

Text of an e-mail sent to the staff at The New York Times from Bill Keller, the paper's executive editor:

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Title: Memo from NYT executive editor Bill Keller

A Message from Bill Keller:

Colleagues,

As you can imagine, I've done a lot of thinking - and a lot of listening - on the subject of what I should have done differently in handling our reporter's entanglement in the White House leak investigation. Jill and John and I have talked a great deal among ourselves and with many of you, and while this is a discussion that will continue, we thought it would be worth taking a first cut at the lessons we have learned.

Aside from a number of occasions when I wish I had chosen my words more carefully, we've come up with a few points at which we wish we had made different decisions. These are instances, when viewed with the clarity of hindsight, where the mistakes carry lessons beyond the peculiar circumstances of this case.

I wish we had dealt with the controversy over our coverage of WMD as soon as I became executive editor. At the time, we thought we had compelling reasons for kicking the issue down the road. The paper had just been through a major trauma, the Jayson Blair episode, and needed to regain its equilibrium. It felt somehow unsavory to begin a tenure by attacking our predecessors. I was trying to get my arms around a huge new job, appoint my team, get the paper fully back to normal, and I feared the WMD issue could become a crippling distraction.

[mattdono]

Until Fitzgerald came after her, I didn't know that Judy had been one of the reporters on the receiving end of the anti-Wilson whisper campaign.

Hmm...Let's see...

1. NYT is a liberal rag
2. Judith Miller is a lying sack of crap liberal that spent a little time in jail to protect, in all likelihood, Joe Wilson himself
3. Joe Wilson published his now infamous "What I didn't find in Africa" article in...yes, of course, The New York Times

And now, the executive editor of the NY Times is saying, AS FACT, there is an "anti-Wilson whisper campaign"?

This would be funny, except that almost everything that this leftist kooks think up at midnight gets regurgitated for the next 36 hours in the new cycle...whether it is true or not.

Internet or not, NYT is still an (uncessarily) influential position in this country. And, even though FR has some people who aren't willing to face some of the realities and shortcomings in the current administration, at least we got this Wilson-Plame garbage tacked down from the get go: it is hogwash of the highest order.

(NOTE: Anyone who is interested in knowing EXACTLY how this Wilson-Plame thing was planned from the get-go, and tacitly involved NYT and WashPost staff writers, needs to read FREEPER Wolfstar's post Set up? Anatomy of the contrived Wilson "scandal". For newbies on FR, you need to check it out; and for those of us who have been here a long time, read it again.

The plan involved Wilson, Plame, Walter Pincus, David Corn, and Judith Miller. And, FREEPER Wolfstar isn't the only one who can provide more than sufficient evidence that this is the case (CLICK HERE for Cliff May's article).

Look, I'm upset at the administration for lots of different reasons, but this Wilson thing was planned and it's bogus regardless of my differences with the administration's policies.

[Timeout]

The entire text deserves repeating:

the paper will go to the mat to back them up institutionally - but only to the degree that the reporter has lived up to his or her end of the bargain, specifically to have conducted him or herself in a way consistent with our legal, ethical and journalistic standards, to have been open and candid with the paper about sources, mistakes, conflicts and the like, and generally to deserve having the reputations of all of us put behind him or her. In that way, everybody knows going into a battle exactly what the situation is, what we're fighting for, the degree to which the facts might counsel compromise or not, and the degree to which our collective credibility should be put on the line.

Sounds to me like the Times hears a train headed towards them.

[Timeout]

Did you notice the time stamp on the email?

Friday night
19:01 Eastern

That seems significant in itself.

[Tzimisce]

Dear Readers,

We lied, distorted and covered up the truth to try and force a left wing agenda on the American public. Unfortunately, we've been ratted out now so all we can say is "Oops, our bad."

As Sincere as a Clinton,

Editor of NYT

PS - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE COME BACK AND READ OUR PAPER. We'll try to behave from now on, honest!

[Enchante]

Thank you, Bill Keller!! The Executive Editor of the NY Times has now made it an easy matter for any future defense attorney to shred her credibility:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1506959/posts?page=23

Ms. Miller, could you explain to the jury why your own Executive Editor has told the world that you are untrustworthy, that you deceived him, etc. etc.??

[Albion Wilde]

Snivel, snivel, snivel, (sucking sound) (sucking sound) (sucking sound), snivel, snivel, snivel, (sucking sound)....

[PA Engineer]

That is the most wonderful picture I have ever seen. :-)

[socialismisinsidious]

typical liberal crap...a bunch of excuses but NO solutions.

and this says volumes: " Yet it is excruciating to withhold information of value to our readers, especially when rival publications are unconstrained."

read: whine, whine, whine--'it's not fair that everyone else is unconstrained...we need to level the playing field somehow'

[piasa]

oi!

[piasa]

Goin' downhill like a freight train headed for hell...

[ChadGore]

Loosing Share?
Try the truth!

[bert]

.....Judy seems to have misled Phil Taubman about the extent of her involvement......

She lied during confession. There'll be hell to pay.

[Jhensy]

I love how they think the big scandal here is that they were TOO EASY on Bush on the Iraq/WMD issue.

Their car is flying over the cliff and they're fiddling with the radio.

[Fedora]

Thanks for the ping!