Bill Keller reports onJudith Miller’s prison conditions:
“It has definitely dawned on her that this is really in jail — it is certainly no summer camp,” Times Executive Editor Bill Keller told E&P Monday. “The food has not agreed with her and we have been trying to impress on her that she needs to eat. We have been hammering that in.”
When he visited Miller last Tuesday, she “looked really thin to me” and as though “she had not been eating,” Keller reported. But, he said her spirits were high, noting “she is feisty and she is firm in her resolve that she is doing the right thing.” Keller added that Miller “has had a fairly regular stream of visitors. She sees the lawyers or people from the lawyers’ offices several times a week, or she sees [attorney] Floyd [Abrams].”
Maybe I am just reading the story wrong, but when the Executive Editor of one of the premier newspapers in the country is this far out of touch with what prison life is like, it really explains a great deal about the sorry state of the media. And by comparison, Judith Miller’s conditions are a cakewalk compared to most lock-ups.
db
You are not reading this story wrong in my opinion.
I guess when you get spoiled on caviar and foie gras, your stomach just can’t handle cheesy potatoes and hamburger caserole…. what are they serving in the NY Times cafetaria these days, anyway?
Doug
It’s part of the Two Americas John Edwards keeps talking about. It’s probably a good thing for Miller that she’s not the subject of a state court’s contempt order. Because federal prisons, while not pleasant places, are generally better funded and maintained than state prisons or county jails.
SamAm
It’s the Alexandria County Jail. Fitzgerald argued that a prison of that type be where she’s sent, as opposed to house arrest or a Federal “resort.” And criminal contempt chargest seem inevitable.
I hope she’s smart enough to talk.
jmaier
Assuming she is actually covering for source, and not the source herself, then that person should be ashamed of him/herself. They provide the leaked information, which they probably shouldn’t and then let someone else sit in jail to cover their ass?
Let’s assume this is some official/ex-official, of some party affiliation, — it speaks volumes for their lack of character.
Disclaimer: I’d like to think Judy is covering for herself but I’m not a fan.
db
I’m feeling especially grumpy today….
What is going to piss me off about this bitch is that whether she talks or not, she’s going to come out of this as a glorified martyr and I am sure will cash in on her built-up celebrity capital… I am sure she is already lining up book publishers to publish her memoirs from jail…..
“Oh, poor me! I stood by my principles [never mind the fact that I was a shrill for the administration] and I was punished for it by having to eat bad food.”….
As I continue to ramble here, I am wondering if the contrast between Cooper and Miller that everyone is making in some way or another really comes down to a gender effect. Cooper had a cornhole to protect. And Miller? Well, female prisons are certainly lacking those things that probably was making Cooper shit bricks.
SomeCallMeTim
Ha! To whom would she sell her book? Conservatives and liberals both hate her. No one else cares enough to buy the book. OTOH, Beinart got a 600K (reportedly) book deal, and the only people who will buy his books are the ones that want to burn it as part of a larger effigy piece.
jobu
jmaier-
Judy can’t be covering for herself.
If she were, she wouldn’t be in jail, as she would have merely taken the 5th to avoid self-incrimination. No, the fact that she’s in jail means she’s protecting someone else.
But who?
Mr Furious
jobu-
Not necessarily true. People plead the 5th when they have no other choice. Hiding behind protecting a source–whether that source actually exists or not– is the way to go. What Miller is going through now is by far preferable to pleading the 5th. She gets to play hero for the press, heighten her name recognition, and hope to weather the grand jury without having anyone else reveal her complicity.
I’m not saying she is protecting herself (very possible however), but taking the contempt doesn’t really reveal anything.
jmaier
Jobu,
What Mr. Furious said. Pleading the 1st amendment sounds highly principled. Pleading the 5th sounds craven.
I’m not saying that’s what is happening and I don’t really care to speculate (I was just qualifying) my condemnation of the cowardly “source” who is being protected.
Bob
Maybe Miller is in jail for not giving up her sources, but maybe there’s something else that Fitzgerald might be curious about.
For ex, was Miller feeding the White House about what was happening on the op-ed page? If the first incarnation of the State Department memo on Wilson really was on June 12th, did Miller tip off friends inside the Administration that Wilson was shopping around his piece around that time?
I am also intrigued about her past skirmish with Fitzgerald over phone records for her and (NY Times reporter) Shenen regarding tipping off a raid from the feds on a Muslim charity allegedly connected to terror-funding. Although Grover Norquist has been traveling in these circles and there have been complaints that the Bush Administration put the skids on another terror-funding follow the money investigation (Operation Green Quest), this is still fringe-thinking.
But then again, one man’s treason is another man’s business opportunity.
SamAm
But she probably won’t be able to weather a criminal contempt charge, considering the attitudes of the judges thus far. Remember, there’s no maximum penalty for that crime.
Steve
Is she really in the county jail?! I thought she was in the same facility with the 20th hijacker. I’d assume he would be in federal and not state custody.
Sherard
Well, let’s AT LEAST hope they have the A/C working properly for her. For we all know that if it isn’t, it’s tantamount to TORTURE!!!!!!