Tonight's guest on The Daily Show is Judith Miller and panelists Bob Costas, Charlamagne Tha God, and Chloé Hilliard discuss the unrest in Baltimore on The Nightly Show.
Judith Miller is a journalist and writer. She is formerly of the New York Times Washington bureau, where she became embroiled in controversy after her coverage of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion was discovered to have been based on faulty information, particularly those stories that were based on sourcing from the now-disgraced Ahmed Chalabi.
She is on tonight to discuss her book The Story: A Reporter's Journey
Star reporter for the New York Times, the world’s most powerful newspaper; foreign correspondent in some of the most dangerous fields; Pulitzer winner; longest jailed correspondent for protecting her sources, Judith Miller is highly respected and controversial. In this memoir, she turns her reporting skills on herself with the intensity of her professional vocation.
Judy Miller grew up near the Nevada atomic proving ground. She got a job at the New York Times after a suit by women employees about discrimination at the paper and went on to cover national politics, head the paper’s bureau in Cairo, and serve as deputy editor in Paris and then deputy at the powerful Washington bureau. She reported on terrorism and the rise of fanatical Islam in the Middle East and on secret biological weapons plants and programs in Iraq, Iran, and Russia. She covered an administration traumatized by 9/11 and an anthrax attack three weeks later. Miller shared a Pulitzer for her reporting.
She turns her journalistic skills on herself and her controversial reporting which marshaled evidence that led America to invade Iraq. She writes about the mistakes she and others made on the existence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. She addresses the motives of some of her sources, including the notorious Iraqi Chalabi and the CIA. She describes going to jail to protect her sources in the Scooter Libby investigation of the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame and how the Times subsequently abandoned her after twenty-eight years.
The Story describes the real life of a foreign and investigative reporter. It is an adventure story, told with bluntness and wryness.
Meh.
She has made sporadic efforts before to defend her reporting. But now she’s employing an important element in the modern method of obfuscation and confusion. Waiting several years after the events, she tries to take advantage of fading memories, especially involving detailed and complicated matters.
Time and complexity are the best friends of a determined distorter of events.
Miller also mixes in some confusion as to what critics have charged her with. In the Journal piece, she begins jocularly by saying she is finally “admitting” her reporting caused the war in Iraq.
“I took America to war in Iraq. It was all me,” she wrote, inviting readers to laugh along with her at such a ludicrous notion.
A clumsy straw man, that; no serious person has charged that Judith Miller took us to war. The charge, serious enough, is that she let herself be used repeatedly by officials and others who sought to do so.
What we can learn from Judith Miller’s rehab tour
I think it is worth reading the whole piece, it does a good job of dissecting her book. Apparently she still does not understand how much of a role she played and what she did.
Bob Costas
is an American sportscaster, on the air for NBC Sports television since the early 1980s. He has been prime-time host of nine Olympic games. He also does play-by-play for MLB Network and hosts an interview show called Studio 42 with Bob Costas.
Charlamagne Tha God
born Lenard McKelvey is a radio and TV personality. He is currently one of the co-hosts of the nationally syndicated radio show, The Breakfast Club with DJ Envy and Angela Yee, and stars in Guy Code, Guy Court and Girl Code, VJ for The Week in Jams with DJ Envy and Sofi Green.
Chloé Hilliard
is a larger than life comedian. Well, that’s because she’s 6’1 and rocks a killer afro. Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in a large Hasidic Jewish neighborhood, Chloé has spun her unique experiences into side splitting laughs.
For the last ten years, Chloé has been a culture/entertainment journalist, writing for The Village Voice, Essence, Vibe, King, and The Source. Most recently, Chloé was the Editorial Director of Loop21.com, which focuses on politics, culture, and entertainment from a hip perspective.
Prior to Loop 21, Chloé served as the Managing Editor/Social Media Manager for VIBE, a leading urban entertainment magazine and website. She has also been a staff writer for The Village Voice, America’s largest weekly newspaper. There, she chronicled lesbian thugs, BET’s transformation and eminent domain in Brooklyn. Chloé is also a former News Editor at The Source. For her expertise on Hip Hop culture she’s appeared on CNN Headline News, ABC News, Our World with Black Enterprise and C-Span. Her work has been featured in Best African American Essays: 2009.
This Week's Guests
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART
Th 4/30: Kristen Wiig
Next Week's Guests
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART
Mo 5/4: Brian Grazer
Tu 5/5: Willie Nelson
We 5/6: Ernest Moniz
Th 5/7: Mumford & Sons
In the event that the Miller interview is bad, have some alternate entertainment.