Cooper's employer Time Magazine's (which has always been a conservative rag, but now is just pointless) choice of placing Anthrax-Ann on the cover means no sympathy from these climes, and Judith Miller is about as sympathetic a character as a slime mold beetle. So, to the stake for both of 'em!
2 Reporters Suffer Another Court Setback:
Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine now have only one appeal left, to the United States Supreme Court.
...facing up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify about their sources lost another round in the courts yesterday. The reporters, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, now have only one appeal left, to the United States Supreme Court.
The decision, by the full federal appeals court in Washington, declined to reconsider a unanimous decision of a three-judge panel of the court.
The earlier decision, in February, required the reporters to testify about conversations they may have had with government officials concerning Valerie Plame, an undercover C.I.A. agent whose identity was first disclosed by Robert Novak, the syndicated columnist
update, couldn't go without quoting the ever readable Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler
What are “the consequences to our society” from the press corps’ idiot culture? In the campaign which transformed our national politics, they worked for two years to make Gore seem crazy. Now, they’re working to make Coulter seem sane. And yes, this is being driven by reactionary forces who want to roll back the last century’s advances. Because this is such an ominous event, we’ll discuss it for the rest of the week.But try to make our young career writers comment on this matter. As of 11 A.M. Eastern today, no one at Tapped had said a word about Time’s kooky love song to Coulter. Nor has Josh Marshall said Word the First. And this is Kevin Drum’s full assessment:
COULTER-MANIA.... Looking for an antidote to Time's mash note to Ann Coulter this week? Try “The Wisdom of Ann Coulter,” an oldie but goody from the Washington Monthly archives.
Drum has many thoughts about the new food pyramid. But he offers no thoughts about Time.But that’s the way it tends to be at sites that work inside the circle. To put this silence in perspective, here’s something Jack Shafer recently said at Slate:
SHAFER (4/8/05): I started writing press criticism at Washington City Paper back in 1986, because as editor I couldn't get anybody else to do it. Writers were frightened that if they penned something scathing about the Washington Post or the New York Times they'd screw themselves out of a future job. Today, the sort of dagger and epee work I used to perform on big media gets done by hundreds of bloggers before I can rise and read the morning paper. Thanks to blogs, we've gone from a culture where few criticized the press to one where it's the new national pastime.
Huh! Indeed, “hundreds of bloggers” are savaging Time for its bizarre product-placement of Coulter. But from within the established organs—from press-connected, professional sites which might even have some actual influence—we largely hear the sounds of silence. But then, these same self-dealers had nothing to say when the Times and the Post elected George Bush through their two-year War Against Gore. (Indeed, they avoid this topic even now.) They maintained their Code of Silence then, and they’re maintaining their silence now. Result? Bush is in the Oval Office, and Coulter’s on the cover of Time. But so what—their brilliant careers are still on track! Yes, it’s one of the obvious ways “the weird and the stupid” become our ideal. It’s the way things fall apart.
