"Fair and Balanced" Without Regard For Truth

I read today that FOX has hired Judith Miller. Anyone remember her? She's the ex-New York Times reporter who:

a) Having been tipped off by an inside source, in 2001 phoned an Islamic charity suspected of terror links to ask for comment on the raid that was going to happen later that day.

b) Leaked the name "Valerie Plame" in an effort to discredit Ambassador Joe Wilson, who had published an editorial critical of the Bush administration's homespun fictional "evidence" of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Miller spent 60 days in jail for refusing to reveal that her source on the story was I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, convicted of five charges in the affair, and regrettably pardoned by Bush.

Miller had had a signed confidentiality release from Libby.

c) Miller was the person who supplied the White House with real, actual, journalistic-y stories about the weapons of mass destruction. She'd get "tipped off" by White-House-beloved Iraqi exiles, publish stories, and the WH would point to the stories and say "Look! Independant confirmation!"

Since 2005 or so, what's she been up to?

"On August 18, 2007, Miller appeared on Plum TV in the Hamptons to discuss her opposition to a plan to build a CVS Pharmacy in Sag Harbor."

--Saith Wikipedia. Presumably polishing up her journalism-y-ness.

She also got hired by a right-wing think-tank (although "think" is likely too strong a word). Polishing up her Rupert-Murdoch friendliness, I guess.


All in all, Judith Miller presents excellent credentials for becoming a reporter at FOX News, where any resemblance to actual journalism is purely coincidental. I'm glad they've got her. It'll make it so much easier to tell when she's lying. Observers should start at a default of 100% of the time.

Oh for FSM's sake ... they're going to make a movie about her. It's entitled Nothing but the Truth."

I think they ought to lop the last three words off that title.