New York Times staffers are demoralized, but the way should be clear now for the Times to tell its story. Will it run tomorrow? Or will they save it for the Sunday edition? I expect the Times account will tell us two things:
1. That Judith Miller went to jail because Scooter Libby’s lawyer, Joseph Tate, told Judith Miller’s lawyer, Floyd Abrams, that Libby had been coerced into signing his waiver, as reported by Murray Waas.
2. The nature of the conversation Miller had with Libby on June 23, 2003, in which Joseph Wilson’s name allegedly came up.
It’s going to be hard to do, given the nature of the Times reporting on the Miller case so far, but I’m going to go into its forthcoming story with an open mind. The Times did a trustworthy job reporting on itself in the Jayson Blair matter. But given the dramatic build-up, the Times account had better be good — every blogger and media reporter in the country is waiting.