Matt Cooper

“On the First Amendment,” Judith Miller said, “I am a hard-liner.”  read more »

Time continues to bulk up its web presence, following their hirings of blogger Andrew Sullivan and web/print columnist Ana Marie Cox. Today, Time's White House correspondent Matt Cooper was promoted to Political Editor of Time.com, Time's deputy managing editor Steve Koepp announced. The internal memo follows. —Gabriel Sherman  read more »

In its Dec. 5 issue, Time magazine reported that special counsel Patrick J.  read more »

"I'm tired," Judith Miller said by phone, two hours after The New York Times announced her retirement from the paper.

Miller, having reached the end of her long standoff with the Times, was preparing for tonight's previously-scheduled appearance on a panel at the Media Law Resource Center's annual dinner, along with Time reporter Matt Cooper.

"I'm really very satisfied with the agreement. I will always miss the Times, but now it was time to move on," Miller said.

"I plan to take a little time off, the time I was supposed to take before this 40-day nightmare began."

Miller said the agreement was reached today, after the Times relented and agreed to her request that she be allowed to publish a piece in the paper rebutting her critics. The piece will run tomorrow.

In announcing Miller's departure, executive editor Bill Keller also released a note he'd sent Miller, which softened the edges of some of his most pointed public statements about her conduct.  read more »

"They agreed to run an article and you know Bill graciously clarified his remarks and set the record straight," Miller said. "And that's what I wanted. I had been very upset by his choice of language, and I'm delighted to see that he clarified his remarks."

--Gabriel Sherman

Time staffers are still waiting for the gavel to fall on Time Inc.'s latest round of cost-cutting announced last week. While Sports Illustrated staffers received a memo announcing the revocation of perks such as catered meetings and (gasp!) business-class air travel, Time staffers haven't heard anything similar. "We've had some trouble with e-mail," a Time staffer joked. "The one lesson we took away from Matt Cooper was not to put anything in e-mails." Time managing editor Jim Kelly said the magazine wasn't trying to avoid a leak by not issuing a memo, and an e-mail about expenses will be distributed in the next week. "We have a memo that will go out at some point," Mr. Kelly said. "It was left up to each magazine to do its own thing." --Gabriel Sherman  read more »

The New York Times has seen tomorrow, and it is Medicaid fraud and man dates!  read more »

In today's print edition, Leon Neyfakh reports (second item) on the particulars of Matt Cooper's comedy career. For readers hungering for more inside-the-Beltway chuckles, Media Mob presents video of Cooper's comedy routine. The clip is in QuickTime format.  read more »

At lunchtime on July 11, as Time Inc.  read more »

One well-guarded secret in the press is that nobody necessarily agrees on the terms governing the guarding of secrets. "Deep background," "not for attribution," "off the record"--the specific interpretation varies from reporter to reporter and source to source.

Now Newsweek's Michael Isikoff has made things even more impenetrable with this week's revelation that Time's Matthew Cooper, in an e-mail to his bureau chief, characterized a conversation with Karl Rove as having been on "double super secret background." Too short to be a double Dutch riff, too rhythmic to be anything else--what does this newest addition to the technical lexicon mean? Experts weigh in:

"I've heard of background and deep background, which usually means no quotations of any kind. I've never heard of double super secret background, but it sounds like a good name for an overpriced ice cream cone." --David Sanger, senior White House correspondent, New York Times

"I think it means that Rove didn't want to be identified. I don't know whether Karl Rove used those words or if those were the words Matt Cooper used in his e-mail to Mike Duffy, but it's not a generally used term to describe a conversation." --Dan Balz, national political correspondent, Washington Post "Matt Cooper is an extremely funny person (he does a stand-up comedy routine in New York and Washington), so I think he's probably making fun of the Washington press culture, though I guess he also probably wanted to stress that the recipient of his e-mail make sure to guard the identity of his source, and a lot of good THAT did." --Adam Nagourney, national political reporter, New York Times "Sounds like 'double secret probation' from Animal House." --Dana Milbank, Washington Post "The proper answer is that 'double super secret background' is 'background' with hot fudge sauce, nuts, sprinkles and a hidden microphone. In short, it's a made-up term by someone who's too into the hugger-mugger of the whole thing. I can't imagine using it without a horselaugh." --James Traub, regular contributor to the New York Times Magazine "I've never heard that term before." --A longtime New York Times journalist, speaking on background only.  read more »

--Leon Neyfakh

In the old days, the Time “Milestone” would have read like this:

DIED: Five years, six  read more »

On June 30, Time Inc.  read more »

On June 30, Time Inc.  read more »

Is Norman Pearlstine a strategic genius after all? Time agrees to stop fighting the corporate part of the special prosecutor's subpoena--leaving Matt Cooper to protect his personal agreement with his confidential source by his personal self in his personal jail cell. So as the locomotive of justice bears down on lonesome Cooper, the mystery source swoops in--"in somewhat dramatic fashion," as Cooper reportedly put it--to untie him from the tracks, releasing him from his confidentiality deal.

No such rescuer appeared for Judith Miller. Maybe it was because her employer stayed solidly behind her; maybe her secret source was less softhearted. Either way, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. was left to wave goodbye and issue another statement of principle. The full text:

"There are times when the greater good of our democracy demands an act of conscience. Judy has chosen such an act in honoring her promise of confidentiality to her sources. She believes, as do we, that the free flow of information is critical to an informed citizenry.

"It has been more than 25 years since Myron Farber, a Times reporter, was jailed and The Times was fined for refusing to provide the names of confidential sources. Subsequently, Mr. Farber and The Times were pardoned and the fines were returned. The case prompted many states to enact shield laws to protect journalists and to help ensure that the public receives information so important in a democracy. I sincerely hope that now Congress will move forward on federal shield legislation so that other journalists will not have to face imprisonment for doing their jobs.  read more »

"In the days, weeks and months ahead, The New York Times Company will do all that we can to ensure Judy's safety and continue to fight for the principles that led her to make a most difficult and honorable choice."

Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment, by Floyd Abrams. Viking, 306 pages, $25.95.  read more »