Judy Miller: Julian Assange A 'Bad Journalist' For Not Verifying Truth Of Stories (VIDEO)

Former New York Times reporter Judy Miller criticized Julian Assange on Saturday's "Fox News Watch," calling the WikiLeaks chief a "bad journalist" for not verifying the veracity of the stories he publishes.

Miller said that Assange "didn't care at all about attempting to verify the information that he was putting out or determine whether or not it would hurt anyone."

Of course, Miller is most famous (or infamous) for writing stories about Iraq's non-existent weapons program that proved to be false, and that influenced public opinion about the need to invade Iraq. As Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now" and Crooks and Liars both noted, Miller has previously said the exact opposite of what she criticized Assange for. Author Michael Massing quotes Miller as saying that it is not her job to verify the truth of the stories her government sources are giving her:

"[M]y job isn't to assess the government's information and be an independent intelligence analyst myself. My job is to tell readers of The New York Times what the government thought about Iraq's arsenal."

WATCH:

Comments

[kauthon]

12:13 AM on 01/12/2011

A reporter should have a value added service of acquiring information and putting it together to form the truth. Not just writing down information told to you by gov't officials.

[SolarPowerGuy]

05:23 AM on 01/11/2011

Pot. Kettle. BLACK!

[OnTheRoadAgain]

01:19 AM on 01/11/2011

I'd love to say something beyond what previous posters have said, but I'm laughing so hard, I've got to go and change my underwear. A teachable moment - about the stark depravity of the establish media. For all of the hyperbole about Wikileaks' responsibility for American deaths, Ms Miller's apportioned_responsibility_for_same is orders of magnitude higher.

[h1ren]

01:07 PM on 01/08/2011

Look who's talking: A forked tongue!

[Nagumo10001]

10:50 PM on 01/05/2011

To add one more thing to my original post. Does anyone today think that the media outlets run by the major corporations of the US and other entities would ever break news like "Deep Throat" offered about the Watergate scandal? That's investigative reporting!

Remember people, love your country not your government.

[Nagumo10001]

10:44 PM on 01/05/2011

"Former New York Times reporter Judy Miller criticized Julian Assange on Saturday's "Fox News Watch," calling the WikiLeaks chief a "bad journalist" for not verifying the veracity of the stories he publishes."

So where is her complaint regarding Fox News Journalists' lack of verification in their reporting? Like when a panel of Fox News hosts claimed Mass Effect was a hardcore sex simulator. When every one of them admitted to never even seeing screenshots of the game, much less spending time with it like anyone with any integrity would do before passing judgment.

Here's a video of said report - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKzF173GqTU

Assange is just doing what the journalists of the past used to do and is exposing the world to all available information he's presented with. Were there no truth to what he's reporting, I doubt parties from the US and Canada would be calling for his arrest or even murder for publishing the data he receives.

[Bellanova]

07:48 AM on 01/05/2011

Let's compare and contrast Judith and Julian.

Judith:

"[M]y job isn't to assess the government's information and be an independent intelligence analyst myself. My job is to tell readers of The New York Times what the government thought about Iraq's arsenal."

Julian:

"Only revealed injustice can be answered; for man to do anything intelligen­t he has to know what's actually going on."

Whose values and goals are closer to our hearts?

[OnTheRoadAgain]

01:35 AM on 01/11/2011

Judith:

"My complicity in the run up to the Iraq war rendered me unemployable even at the NY Times. To collect a paycheck, I am now spewing whatever Fox News tells me to spew, relying on the fact that Fox News viewers have no idea who Judith Miller is."

[AmyBeam]

05:12 AM on 01/05/2011

Ha Ha Ha! I was about to comment on Judith Miller's attack on Julian Assange saying he does not verify news stories until that got one-upped by the FOX news commentary asking readers to let them know if we see anything biased on FOX news. Oh gosh, still laughing, but it is so painful. Where should I begin? FOX: how about EVERYTHING YOU SAY IS BIASED and full of lies and intentional deception?

[Tahlavi52]

12:29 AM on 01/05/2011

Judith Miller calling someone a "bad journalist because he didn't verify" ! I wouldn't have thought it possible, but both she and Fox have reached new lows.

[h1ren]

01:14 PM on 01/08/2011

Yup, they dug past the tar pits a long time ago... And there is always a new low they find. If they don't find one, they invent it!

They are perpetual grave-diggers... no end in sight!

[jimpager]

12:04 AM on 01/05/2011

This is insane. Judy Miller, who disgraced the NY Times while serving as mouthpiece for the neo-con Bushies on the trumped-up reasons for going into Iraq, is lecturing Julian Assange, who is bringing truthful documents, to the extent our government can discern truth any more, about being a "bad journalist." WTF??? The kind of truth the NY Times hasn't served up since the Pentagon Papers...back when the NY Times actually had integrity. And Ms. Miller's own "justifications" of the Iraq War contributed to the loss of thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, the ascendent hegemony of Iran, the weakening of Israel's position in the middle east, and the hemoraghing of America's economy. She ought to slink back under whatever rock she crawled out from under. You'd think she'd be embarassed. You'd be wrong.

[MichaelRCooke]

11:12 PM on 01/04/2011

Julian Assange isn't a journalist at all. If he was, the name of his site would not have the word "wiki" associated with it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

Any Wiki website denotes it is produced by a community, it is almost the opposite of an article written and edited by one person. It is possible to argue that a wiki that allows anyone to upload and share anything, no matter how potentially politically sensitive, is not a good thing. It is also possible to argue that a wiki that allows anyone to upload and share anything, no matter how politically sensitive, is an excellent thing, something that improves democracy itself and globally!

It all comes down to if you feel governments and companies have a right to privacy they deny citizens and consumers.

[sdlefty]

10:39 PM on 01/04/2011

I almost fell out of my chair laughing!! She's such a hypocrite.

[erikqj]

09:48 PM on 01/04/2011

This would be appropriate criticism, if Assange had made any claim of veracity on behalf of US embassies. As it is, he didn't. The current leaks are being published as the dubious and frequently frivolous opinions of diplomats. The news isn't that it's true, but that the diplomats believed and/or claimed that it's true.

After the claims of the diplomats became news, the news media went one step further: The cases where the veracity of those claims were important, they've started the process of verification. What proves my first point is that a conclusion that the claims are false will be of equal public interest to their verification. The news is that it was believed, and whether that belief was right or wrong.

As long as Assange verified that the cables were indeed authentic, he did his diligence in verifying his story.

[Dr Confuso]

08:56 PM on 01/04/2011

The irony of this story is just so....apparent! Doesn't she proof read her own stuff?

[Jaybot]

08:16 PM on 01/04/2011

Judy Miller? Judith 'Aluminum Tubes' Miller? Wow, just wow.