Miller, Nursing Knife Wounds in Back, Shuffles Off

Judith Miller made it official this afternoon, shuffling off from the Times after alienating pretty much everybody who came within a quarter mile of her. Have to admit, it is quite an accomplishment to be able to alienate both the left and the right simultanteously, while at the same time making people who had supported her (including yours truly) feel like schmucks.

My "schmuck moment" came when it became obvious that, just as the looney left had been saying, she was staying in jail unnecessarily. Her source had freely given her permission to testify.

What's interesting -- but totally predictable -- is how quickly the Times, with the encouragement of its management-shill public editor Barney Calame, turned on Miller. Make no mistake about it, this once-great newspaper reflexively defended her for purely institutional reasons, to protect its property rights as a publisher. Once she got out of the hoosegow, Miller reverted to a "reporter who writes stories Republican like" and yecch! Yecch! Get out!

Miller is writing a letter to the editor that appears tomorrow, having been denied the right to publish an op-ed piece defending herself from Barney "Empty Suit" Calame, Maureen "Are Stupid Columnists Necessary?" Dowd and her own editor, who attacked her in the pages of the Times.

The Times story today says "the Times refused that demand - Gail Collins, editor of the editorial page, said, 'We don't use the Op-Ed page for back and forth between one part of the paper and another' - but agreed to let her write the letter." Yeah, when the Times wants to muzzle somebody, the "forth" is OK but not the "back." Miller has a website. She should post her full version of events there.

UPDATE: She did.