The board of The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) voted unanimously to reverse an earlier decision to give its annual Conscience in Media award to imprisoned New York Times reporter Judith Miller. In an Editor & Publisher report, Anita Bartholomew, a freelance journalist who has contributed to, of all publications, Reader's Digest, for heaven's sake, stated:

The First Amendment is designed to prevent government interference with a free press. Miller, by shielding a government official or officials who attempted to use the press to retaliate against a whistleblower, and scare off other would-be whistleblowers, has allied herself with government interference with, and censorship of, whistleblowers. When your source IS the government, and the government is attempting to use you to target a whistleblower, the notion of shielding a source must be reconsidered. To apply standard practices regarding sources to hiding wrongdoing at the highest levels of government perverts the intent of the First Amendment.

Along with Arianna Huffington, who questioned Miller's role as an "embedded" journalist, Judith Miller's sympathy factor seems to be eroding as quickly as Robert Novak's.