I keep reading about how Judith Miller is upholding some noble journalistic principle by refusing to divulge her sources to the grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame leak. The problem is she has invoked no such privilege.
It has been widely reported in the media that several other journalists were also subpeonaed to appear before the grand jury, and most of them reached an accommodation with prosecutor Fitzgerald whereby they would appear but would not be required to divulge their sources.
Miller apparently sought no such arrangement. She simply thumbed her nose at the subpeona as if she enjoyed some special privelege to defy the grand jury entirely. Most people would classify that behavior as contempt of court regardless of the merits behind Miller’s stated determination to protect the principle of confidentiality.
The question people ought to be asking is why doesn’t Miller answer the subpeona and then simply invoke a onstitutional privilege if asked about her sources? The very worst that could happen to her is she would be cited for contempt and would be no worse off than she is now.
I would respectfully suggest that Miller has a different agenda, and her public stance and “selfless martyrdom” are a smokescreen. It has been widely rumored (and hinted at by Fitzgerald) that Miller herself is a target of the grand jury probe. It has even been suggested that it was Miller who alerted the White House on the day that Joe Wilson’s New York Times op-ed piece came out, that Valerie Plame was really Mrs. Valerie Plame Wilson. Obviously there is nothing stopping Miller from answering the subpeona and invoking a constitutional privelege if asked about news sources. On the other hand, she would not be able to invoke such a privelege if asked about her own complicity in the outing of Valerie Plame.
Instead of clamoring to defend Miller’s defiance of her subpeona, her defenders ought to be encouraging her to appear before the grand jury and invoke her claim of privilege there rather than in front of TV cameras. Personally I think the lady doth protest too much. Does she have something to hide?
