Judy Miller, standing just a few feet away from Matt Cooper, was laughing when she turned to introduce a friend to the group she was standing with, saying “This is one of my colleagues … or, I guess, former colleagues, now …” (Cue a moment of uncomfortable laughter.) Cooper appeared more subdued, quietly talking to a grey-haired gentleman and glancing around somewhat nervously as a horde of grey-suited media lawyers drifted into the second floor ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel in midtown Manhattan last night for the Media Law Research Center’s 25th anniversary dinner and panel discussion.
Hosted by Terry Moran of ABC News, the panel included Cooper, the now-freelance “Miss Run Amok,” Jim Taricani, a reporter for WJAR in Rhode Island and Congressman Mike Pence.
The dinner, a $375-a-plate affair, began just hours after Miller and the New York Times announced her retirement, so there were no doubt a few in the crowd (including this reporter) who hoped that she might finally spill something juicy. No such luck.
To the contrary, the panel, entitled “The Reporter’s Privilege,” left one with the feeling of having just read a newspaper story with a hole in it wide enough to drive a truckload of indictments through. Miller and Cooper are both likely to be summoned as witnesses in the Scooter Libby trial, and, as such, each of them stopped believing some time ago that they are in the business of telling us what they know. Indeed, each, along with Pence, is a pro at not offering any more than they have to in response to questions, which made the whole evening a resounding dud for those hoping to learn anything new about either Miller’s or Cooper’s role in the Libby case. In particular, Miller appeared, through her evasive answers to Moran’s questions, both totally detached from the firestorm of criticism that has surrounded her, and yet somehow bewildered by same.
There was something faintly absurd in hearing the reporter who failed so spectacularly in covering the WMD claims of unverified Iraqi sources, and who then refused to cooperate with her own paper in the telling of her own story, complain that she was disappointed in the Times‘ coverage of her saga. Consequently, Miller wasn’t earning herself much sympathy from the working press jammed into the back of the room, as she strained the limits of what most of them were willing to stomach.
She offered nothing in response to Moran’s questions other than a recitation of parts of her letter to the editor in today’s Times, and to complain that she wished the media had spent more time exploring the reasons she refused to testify. Overall, she said, she was “disappointed” not just in the Times coverage of her case but in just about everyone’s coverage.
The only truly interesting part of the program was when Rep. Mike Pence, one of the authors of the proposed federal shield law for reporters, tackled the issue of whether or not bloggers should be given the same protections as journalists. Punting on a definitive answer, he said that he felt that the issue of protecting bloggers should be decided on a “blog by blog basis by the courts.”
He said that while some bloggers collect facts and write original pieces, “other bloggers simply create a link to [the work of] other journalists,” a statement which seems to hint that he doesn’t think those blogs should be covered under a shield law. Taricani, who recently served four months of house arrest in a fight over naming a source, said that bloggers should be covered under any shield law, but worried that blogs are “unvetted,” which could lead to trouble.
At the conclusion of the panel, an audience member asked what they thought of Bob Novak — the guy who got this whole business started. Cooper stuck about as close to common wisdom as he could, saying that he thinks Novak’s role is still a mystery, and “I guess some day we’ll know why he never acknowledged what must have been the case, he must have testified.”
Finally, it seemed sadly apropos to the state of contemporary journalism that at an event billed as a discussion of “reporters privilege,” the actual working reporters in attendance were relegated to a row of chairs behind the finger food table at the back of the cavernous ballroom. While the guests and the panelists wined and dined at the dozens of tables in front of the room, the working reporters got the worst seats in the house — but at least got all the baby carrots they could eat.
Reporters’ privilege, indeed.
Paul McLeary is a former CJR staff writer. Since 2008, he has covered the Pentagon for Foreign Policy, Defense News, Breaking Defense, and other outlets. He is currently a defense reporter for Politico.