Miller Defends Journalistic Ethics in Wake of Retirement

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Judith Miller, in announcing her retirement from the New York Times yesterday, defended her journalistic ethics and her decision to testify in the CIA leak case while saying she left the newspaper after 27 years mainly because she had “become the news.”


She also released a letter she wrote in October to Maureen Dowd that scolded the Times op-ed columnist for “creating a false and damaging impression that I had tried to cover up for a crime.”


Ms. Miller, 57, the Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent who found herself ostracized in a newsroom that had previously hailed her as a First Amendment hero, had been negotiating the terms of her departure for several weeks, according to a report published by the Times.


In a telephone interview yesterday evening with The New York Sun, Ms. Miller said there was “absolutely nothing” that she regretted during her legal ordeal that began when she refused to testify in the CIA leak investigation, which led her to jailing for 85 days. “I was glad I went to jail, and I went for the right principles,” she said.


In a farewell memo to the Times newsroom, Ms. Miller said she left the paper because of opposition she faced from colleagues who questioned her decision to testify about conversations she had with I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Cheney’s indicted former chief of staff.


She said that before going to jail, she could not have reached two critical agreements: one in writing and by phone with Mr. Libby allowing her to disclose their confidential conversations; and the other with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about restrictions on her grand jury testimony.


“But mainly I have chosen to resign because over the last few months, I have become the news, something a New York Times reporter never wants to be,” she wrote.


In announcing her departure in the afternoon, the Times’s executive editor, Bill Keller, also released a letter he wrote to Ms. Miller correcting assertions he had made about her role in the CIA leak case.


The letter said he did not intend to suggest any “improper relationship” when he wrote about her “entanglement” with Mr. Libby, and said he was wrong to say that she misled the Washington bureau chief, Philip Taubman, when he inquired whether she was on the receiving end of a White House campaign against Joe Wilson, the former ambassador and CIA agent Valerie Plame’s husband.


Ms. Miller also rebutted some of the most serious charges leveled against her by colleagues about her dealings with Mr. Libby. On her newly established Web site, judithmiller.org, she posted a letter she sent to Ms. Dowd after the Times op-ed columnist wrote an article that portrayed her as a wild journalist who most likely lied to a grand jury and who sought to cover up for White House officials.


Saying she does not know why Ms. Dowd doubts her honesty, Ms. Miller said she “cannot remember when or why I wrote that misspelled name in my notes. The name is free-floating, separated by two pages from the end of an interview with Mr. Libby and written in a different color ink from my Libby interviews.”


Ms. Dowd had written: “It also doesn’t seem credible that Judy wouldn’t remember a Marvel comics name like ‘Valerie Flame.'”


Ms. Miller in her letter concluded: “I agree with you that reporters must be more than stenographers. The same is true of columnists.”


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use