Oh, that other thing.....

NYT ombudsman Byron Calame offers another (woefully incomplete) peek behind the curtain regarding the paper's shameful decision to spike the NSA spying story on the eve of the 2004 election. What he doesn't do is connect some rather significant dots. But emptywheel @ The Next Hurrah does.

At the same time as some of NYT's top editors were consulting with the WH over whether or not to publish a story that would reveal BushCo was spying on citizens, it was also conducting discussions, through Floyd Abrams, about whether or not Judy should testify about her conversation with Scooter Libby. Hmmm. Scooter Libby. The National Security Adviser and Chief of Staff to the Vice President and Assistant to the President. A guy who was, undoubtedly, right in the thick of justifying and protecting this illegal spying program. A guy who was probably involved in some, if not all, of the attempts to persuade the NYT not to publish the Risen story.

At precisely the same time that the NYT's top editors realized Libby's lawyer was trying to coach Judy's testimony, many of the same editors decided not to publish the domestic spying story because it wouldn't be fair.

Judith Miller. The gift that keeps on grifting.