If you’re wondering what criteria Fox News seeks in an employee, just consider Judith Miller, the former New York Times reporter who claimed that Saddam Hussein had acquired metal tubes to enrich nuclear material, wrote of his “dogged insistence on pursuing his nuclear ambitions,” and even made statements that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq. Not only did the New York Times issue an apology for Miller’s poor reporting, in 2004 Miller was found in contempt of court when she refused to appear before a federal grand jury investigating who had leaked the identity of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative and was subsequently jailed. Later she was released after disclosing her source as Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s chief of staff.

Editor and Publisher reports:

Three years after her difficult departure from The New York Times, Judith Miller says she still misses some of the people she worked with and the "excitement of the newsroom." She also says the Times remains "indispensable."

… Miller, who left the paper in 2005 after 28 years, spoke as word spread of her latest new job, as a commentator for Fox News. Miller said she will be on air and on the Web site part-time discussing First Amendment and free speech issues, as well as foreign policy and national security.

 

"I get to spout my views, I will NOT be joining the news team," she stressed. "I care about First Amendment issues and free speech and I will talk about that and foreign policy if and when we ever stop talking about the economy, which is going to be going on for a while."

 

Miller, 60, gained national fame in 2005 when she spent 85 days in jail for failing to reveal a source in the Valerie Plame scandal, the federal investigation into who leaked the former CIA agent's name to reporters.

 

After she was released, conflicts with some Times editors and reporters over the reporting of her story eventually led to her departure. She has also come under scrutiny for her reporting on pre-war Iraq, including misleading stories about the existence of weapons of mass destruction.

Miller, who attended Ohio State University, Barnard, and Princeton, will get to "spout" her opinions alongside personalities such as Bill "The Loofah" O’Reilly, Greta Van Susteren, Sean Hannity, and Alan Colmes. Fox Senior VP John Moody said of the network’s newest commentator, “She has a very impressive resume. We’ve all had stories that didn’t come out exactly as we had hoped. It’s certainly something she’s going to be associated with for all time, and there’s not much anyone can do about that, but we want to make use of the tremendous expertise she brings on a lot of other issues… She has explained herself and she has nothing to apologize for.” Except “misleading” the public, of course.