HUFFINGTON BLOG
Created By: fluid
Last Modified: 03/12/06
Summary: A NEW VANITY FAIR ARTICLE ILLUSTRATES THE IMPACT BLOGGING IS HAVING ON MAINSTREAM JOURNALISMWith so little really new in the article, one thing
that jumps out is the impact of blogs—principally The Huffington
Post--on the Miller case.
One interesting exchange occurred when Bill Keller, New York Times executive editor, allegedly told Miller back in 2003 that she would have to quit reporting from Iraq because she had become “radioactive….You can see it on the blogs.” Miller claims she replied, “Why do you give a shit about the blogs? They do not know anything.” (Brenner relates that Keller disputes this, saying he’s “pretty sure” he never said any such thing.)
Then Brenner quotes Miller complaining about the lack of editing on the blogs and that sometimes “slanderous” attacks on her appear there. But, actually, she is more "appalled” by her colleagues “who believed what they read on the blogs.”
But as time passed, Miller could not escape the blogs, principally Huffington, even though her attorney Floyd Abrams says, “No one takes this stuff seriously, do they?” At another point he refers to "the defamation that was running on the blogs."
The article recounts a scene where another lawyer visits Miller in jail and hands her a clip from Huffington, saying, “You are going to be upset with this.” In view of that attorney, Arianna Huffington and other bloggers were “passing off speculation as fact” or engaging in “pure character assassination.” This was a problem because, as Brenner writes, Huffington’s blog was “steadily gaining heft” and had “become must reading for the media.”
This became particularly troubling when “people at the Times appeared to be talking to Huffington.”
Brenner then quotes famed investigator Lowell Bergman as claiming that Huffington’s idea that Miller was a White House collaborator “was a fantasy fed by the deep animosity of people toward Judy.” For Brenner the question is, "Did partisan politics trump the First Amendment?"
One interesting exchange occurred when Bill Keller, New York Times executive editor, allegedly told Miller back in 2003 that she would have to quit reporting from Iraq because she had become “radioactive….You can see it on the blogs.” Miller claims she replied, “Why do you give a shit about the blogs? They do not know anything.” (Brenner relates that Keller disputes this, saying he’s “pretty sure” he never said any such thing.)
Then Brenner quotes Miller complaining about the lack of editing on the blogs and that sometimes “slanderous” attacks on her appear there. But, actually, she is more "appalled” by her colleagues “who believed what they read on the blogs.”
But as time passed, Miller could not escape the blogs, principally Huffington, even though her attorney Floyd Abrams says, “No one takes this stuff seriously, do they?” At another point he refers to "the defamation that was running on the blogs."
The article recounts a scene where another lawyer visits Miller in jail and hands her a clip from Huffington, saying, “You are going to be upset with this.” In view of that attorney, Arianna Huffington and other bloggers were “passing off speculation as fact” or engaging in “pure character assassination.” This was a problem because, as Brenner writes, Huffington’s blog was “steadily gaining heft” and had “become must reading for the media.”
This became particularly troubling when “people at the Times appeared to be talking to Huffington.”
Brenner then quotes famed investigator Lowell Bergman as claiming that Huffington’s idea that Miller was a White House collaborator “was a fantasy fed by the deep animosity of people toward Judy.” For Brenner the question is, "Did partisan politics trump the First Amendment?"
From:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002157337
