Leaked emails add to NY Times' woes (Judith Miller/John Burns Pissing Match! Schadenfreude!)

The Guardian ^ | May 29, 2003 | Ciar Byrne

[Timesink]

6pm

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Leaked emails add to NY Times' woes

Ciar Byrne
Thursday May 29, 2003
The Guardian

Can the headlines get any worse for the New York Times? Once a beacon of US broadsheet journalism, the Times has already been rocked by charges of plagiarism, and now its rival the Washington Post has heaped on fresh embarrassment by reporting an unseemly squabble between two senior journalists on the paper.

According to leaked emails seen by the Washington Post, the Times' Pulitzer prize-winning Baghdad bureau chief, John Burns, was in high dudgeon when another Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, Judith Miller, filed an interview with Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi.

Burns, who had already lined up a piece on Pentagon favourite Chalabi, the leader of the US-backed Iraqi National Congress, fired off an angry email to Miller, who retorted that as the expert on the formerly exiled businessman, she was the one who should have been consulted.

"I am deeply chagrined at your reporting and filing on Chalabi after I had told you on Monday night that we were planning a major piece on him - and without so much as telling me what you were doing," said Burns in an email obtained by the Washington Post.

"We have a bureau here; I am in charge of that bureau until I leave; I make assignments after considerable thought and discussion, and it was made plain to all of us to whom the Chalabi story belonged," he added.

"If you do this, what is to stop you doing it on any other story of your choosing? And what of the distress it causes the correspondent who is usurped? It is not professional, and not collegial."

Miller apologised for writing about Chalabi without informing Burns, but added: "I've been covering Chalabi for about 10 years and have done most of the stories about him for our paper, including the long takeout that we recently did on him. He has provided most of the front page exclusives on WMD [weapons of mass destruction] to our paper."

When questioned by the Washington Post, Miller declined to comment on the content of internal emails. The Times' assistant managing editor for foreign news, Andrew Rosenthal, criticised the Washington Post for publishing reporters' private emails, describing it as a "slippery slope".

The Times held up its hands recently when it transpired that one of its reporters, Jayson Blair, had been plagiarising from other newspapers and inventing interviews and datelines for his stories on a regular basis - splashing his misdemeanours across four broadsheet pages.

However, only yesterday the Times had its nose rubbed in the dirt once again when yet another Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, Rick Bragg, resigned after admitting he had drawn heavily on the work of a freelance writer for an article about Florida oystermen.

[Timesink]

JOY!

[Timesink]

Schadenfreude

This is the New York Times Schadenfreude Ping List. Freepmail me to be added or dropped.

[bert]

The presstitutes at the ol gray whore's bordello are fighting over the John's.

[martin_fierro]

See? BONFIRE! <|:)~

[hemogoblin]

Ha ha! Scooped by themselves!

This is textbook absence-of-leadership.

[Mister Baredog]

The Times' assistant managing editor for foreign news, Andrew Rosenthal, criticised the Washington Post for publishing reporters' private emails, describing it as a "slippery slope".

ROTFLMAO!!!

They've been doing this since e-mail was created, just not "their" e-mail, this is just yummy.

[Cicero]

The Times' assistant managing editor for foreign news, Andrew Rosenthal, criticised the Washington Post for publishing reporters' private emails, describing it as a "slippery slope".

Slippery slope? I thought slippery slopes and falling dominoes were figments of the Right Wing Imagination.

[backhoe]

One mo' time--

-The Old Grey Info-Slut... the NYT/Jayson Blair Affair--

[kitkat]

•••Ha ha! Scooped by themselves!

This is textbook absence-of-leadership.•••

Absolutely. It seems incomprehensible since Miller was their resident expert on Chalabi that Burns didn't include her in the current piece about him.

Okay, they have "bureaus." But isn't there an editor who oversees which bureau gets which stories when there's an overlapping?

[Miss Marple]

Boy, I leave for two hours for errands and yet ANOTHER hit on the Times!

Oh frabjous day, calloo, callay!
I chortle in my joy!

[jocon307]

"Oh frabjous day, calloo, callay!
I chortle in my joy!"

LOL

And hast thou slain the jabborwok?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

LOL, great! I love FR

[razorback-bert]

Time to put some mustard on those hot dogs, their done.

[Liz]

Betcha Howell, and Pinch are inhaling lines like crazy, probably using Blair's supplier.
Here's Howell after a coke hit trying hard to keep the rebellious Times staff amused.

" Hey, Pinch, how'm I doing? "

[lainde]

Just lovely....

[Jesse]

(sung to the tune of the old grey mare) "The old grey whore she ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be, the old grey whore she ain't what she used to be, many long years, agoooo."

Is it true their new tag line is

NEW YORK TIMES...The Paper of Ill-repute?

[xJones]

"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.

[Malesherbes]

When it Raines, it lies, like another Pulitzer Prize.

[jocon307]

The time has come, the Walrus said
To talk of many things
Of shoes and ships and sealing wax
Of cabbages and kings!

[bert]

Second verse..... The ol'gray whore, she ain't what she outa'be, ain't what she outa' be, .......