We want her to go to jail. But not for that.

Berkeley hosts Judy Miller. Extremely tenuous defenses of her WMD reportage ensue:

Miller’s position, as she repeated several times during the Berkeley event and during an interview earlier that day for KQED “Forum,” is “You go with what you’ve got.” She was referring both to her WMD sources and the questionable whistle-blowers she is protecting, but it’s a statement her critics ought to keep in mind. Miller may be an imperfect martyr for the First Amendment cause, but with 15 other journalists battling a secrecy-loving government over their own confidential sources, you go with what you’ve got.

Controversial reporter Judith Miller plans to defend journalism’s role in a democracy—all the way to prison [UC Berkeley News via Romenesko]

We’re willing to defend journalism’s role in a democracy, too—by getting the story right. And if there has to be a first amendment “martyr,” it seems that “what we’ve got” is 14 other journalists who are not Judy Miller.

Also: Miller’s interviewer, Lowell Bergman, answers hostile questions on her behalf:

When “Forum” host Michael Krasny began reading out bare-knuckled e-mails from listeners, Bergman jumped to Miller’s defense before she had a chance to speak. “I don’t think anyone would have said Judy had done anything wrong if weapons of mass destruction had been found,” Bergman said, and later: “To blame the war on Iraq on Judy and Ahmed Chalabi is to give them a lot more power than I think they had.”

Let’s hope that’s not the sort of interviewing technique he’s teaching the Berkeley j-school kids.

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