Judith Miller, a sort of Cassandra

The genius of greek literature consists, in part, in its plasticity and appositeness to the human drama in all historical periods, perhaps even to eternal types of the human soul. The recent jailing of Judith Miller bears a reflection of the story of Cassandra, the girlfriend of Agamemnon, who's refusal of Apollo, the indignation of his ire, gave her the gift of true prophesy even though none would believe her.

I was not unhappy about the decision to jail Miller on account of her failure to comply with a federal judge's court order that she release what information she had (but never published) on the Valerie Plame debacle. For Judith Miller has been a courtesan of the Bush administration, jerking it off with the right hand while the left hand was penning copy and pocketing riches . See Alexander Cockburn's resume of Miller's self-aggrandizing stay at the NY Times: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08182003.html No, Miller is not a favorite reporter of the left, for she is a kind of female Tom Friedman, a dilettante pundit whose every published view seems to support directly or indirectly, the interests of GOP party bosses. And so it was that I, and I'm sure many others, took a kind of vicarious pleasure in her jailing.

Of course, such pleasure is an indecent one. Judith Miller has taken a firm stand on rights of reporters to conceal their sources. She has recast herself as civil libertarian, a defender of first amendment rights. The New York Times put her in this light in its editorial on her jailing: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/07/opinion/07thu1.html And so, it would seem that her jailing is not something that should go unchallenged. Principle requires that we separate out our inclinations from our duties. We should remind ourselves that even people who we disagree with deserve the protections of the constitution. We might advocate tougher shield laws, should they show up on a referendum somewhere.

But there is a very good reason why her cause will not be celebrated, will fade and disappear into the white noise. And that is because, on a deep level, her act of civil disobedience is not done to protect the innocent, nor to protect a "whistleblower", nor to protect an insider who has a sudden bout of compunction, no, hers is an act of protecting the identity of the great gamesman behind this debacle. Hers is an act of complicity with the game of intimidation, of cuddling up to the administration. She has chosen to protect her lovely, Karl Rove.

When a reporter appeals to first amendment privileges and does so in the name of civil disobedience, let it not be said that they did so to protect the scandal-makers and spindoctors from within the government. That is not a reasonable use of civil disobedience, but is the very essence of sycophancy and complicity. Why button up now? You were going so well, Cassandra, telling us what you could envisage so clearly even though noone can believe you. Just sing out now your rotten truths from your cellared hell, little canary, sing sing your rotten truths. The truth shall set you free!