I Can't Believe She Wrote That

One more note on Maureen, then I’ll give you a break on the Dowd front. I promise.

A couple readers have mentioned to me that they “can’t believe” what Maureen Dowd did to her friend Judith Miller (i.e. writing a column blasting Miller’s professional ethics), and isn’t that just what I’m writing about and how sad to see women backstabbing each other at such a high and highly visible professional level.

The answer is: What are you talking about? No, it’s not what I’m writing about, at least not in the way you think. I applaud Maureen Dowd 100%. Let’s consider our priorities here. Personally, I can’t believe what Judith Miller did to the reading public, not to mention the journalism profession, by feeding us straight from the source White House claptrap on the Iraq War. I can’t believe other women think Maureen was supposed to stand by and say nothing because she should appear unconditionally supportive to her fellow female reporters. I do believe that she made a choice that was totally within her rights, in fact part of her journalistic responsibility, to call Judith Miller to task for sinking so low. How could she in good conscious do anything else?

Though Dowd begins her column with the words “I’ve always liked Judy Miller,” simple admiration does not a friendship make. From what I’ve read elsewhere, these two women were never friends and assuming such buddy-hood just because they work together starts us down a dangerous road. Dowd and Miller were two women in the same office. Period. They existed with a respectful tension that got shot to pieces when the truth about Miller’s questionable ethics went public. There’s no reason on god’s green earth that Maureen Dowd should have been nice to or easy on Judith Miller. It wouldn’t have served Dowd or Miller or women in general for the members of the Gray Lady sisterhood to cover for each other no matter what.

My guess is that if Judith was Jim, and Maureen was Marty, no one would be questioning a single fork-tongued word. Maureen Dowd did her job as a journalist by calling Miller out, and she did it well.

End of story.