Ms. Miller didn't make herself any friends this weekend with her big story:
Media critics said her explanation was hard to fathom and they slammed Times' editors for failing to provide oversight. The article also failed to explain why Miller tried to avoid testifying and why she never wrote a story about the events, the said.
"It's quite possible that of all the scandals and disturbances that the Times has gone through, this is the worst," said Michael Wolff, a media critic who writes for Vanity Fair.
While the account was unusually revealing, said Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, "Judith Miller's future is really in question. Her attempt to defend herself leaves a deep, self-inflicted wound."
She made matters worse, said Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University.
"She subtracted from public knowledge by introducing this unknown source whose name she couldn't remember," Rosen said. "It's almost like the gaps in the Nixon tapes."
Key portions of the late President Richard Nixon's office recordings were mysteriously erased when he talked about the Watergate scandal, a high-water mark in journalism.
