A flack in disguise

KUDOS to Tim Rutten for daring to pierce the veil of sainthood in which Judith Miller has tried to wrap herself as a journalist fighting for the rights of other journalists to protect their sources [“How Miller Was Used by Source,” Oct. 22]. This veil, intended to obscure the fact that she had become a flack for the neocons and their war in Iraq, cannot mask her culpability in helping to convince the American public that this unwinnable, costly war was justified.

JAYCIE INGERSOLL

Beverly Hills

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REMIND me never to get on Tim Rutten’s bad side. One might expect him to empathize with Judith Miller, a colleague who just spent 85 days in the slammer for defending journalistic principles. Instead, she’s a “self-interested, unscrupulous” shill. How Miller’s self-interest was served by her sojourn in jail he doesn’t explain.

What enrages Rutten -- and embarrasses the New York Times -- is Miller’s violation of another unwritten principle: Journalists are supposed to attack Republicans, not listen to them.

Poor Judith Miller just doesn’t get it: The protection of anonymous sources is for those who oppose the Republicans -- not their spokesmen.

BILL IRELAND

Ontario