Who Decides 'Who Won'?
The New York Times' Jim Rutenberg had a follow-up piece on Friday's debate headlined "The Next Day, a New Debate on Who Won." The story described the McCain and Obama camps' attempts at "influencing...
View ArticleThe Times, Obama and Ayers: 2,100 Words, and What Was the Point?
The New York Times splashed the Barack Obama-Bill Ayers "connection" story on the front page of Saturday's paper. Obama's practically non-existent ties to former Weather Underground figure William...
View ArticleGetting Serious About Getting Serious About Bipartisanship
You see some absurd standards being set for how far President-elect Barack Obama should tip his cabinet to the right. Al Kamen in the Washington Post (11/7/07) writes that if "he's serious about this...
View ArticleInsurance Underwriters of the World Unite!
The New York Times' Jonathan Hicks (11/17/08), writing about newly elected Staten Island Rep. Michael McMahon: Mr. McMahon…stresses his working-class roots, telling voters of his Irish...
View ArticleUnions Aren't Booking Themselves on TV Shows
In "Clout Has Plunged for Automakers and Union, Too," the New York Times' Micheline Maynard makes this curious observation: [GM CEO Rick ]Wagoner and Ron Gettelfinger, head of the U.A.W., appeared on...
View ArticleWho Gets to Speak: Iraq, Afghanistan and the NY Times
The New York Times' Week in Review section yesterday (11/23/08) gathered a group of op-eds under the heading "Transitions," which they described as "a series of Op-Ed articles by experts on the most...
View ArticleAbandoning Journalism When It's Needed Most
Here's the New York Times (11/24/08), reporting the Citigroup bailout: In tense, round-the-clock negotiations that stretched until almost midnight on Sunday, it became clear that the crisis of...
View ArticleNYT vs. Venezuela's Election Results
Anyone who followed the results of Venezuela's regional elections last Sunday will know that President Hugo Chavez's party won 17 out of 22 contests up for grabs, garnering 52.5 percent of the popular...
View ArticleCreating Black Friday
Is the total frenzy over post-Thanksgiving shopping a recent creation? That's what David Carr writes in the New York Times today: Media and retail outfits are economic peas in a pod. Part of the reason...
View ArticleJohn Brennan: 'Alleged' Torture Supporter or Victim of Ardent Leftists?
The New York Times yesterday (12/3/08) described problems that President-elect Barack Obama faces in managing the transition at the Central Intelligence Agency. CJR's website has an item today...
View ArticleFrom Selma to Long Island: NYT Denounces Outside Agitators
There was an Editorial Observer piece in the New York Times today (12/4/08) that really read like a piece from the segregated South of the 1950s, taking the side of the Jim Crow-enforcing sheriff...
View ArticleThe New York Times, the People's Paper
Actual headline today (12/10/08) in the New York Times Dining section: Great Meals for Two, Under $100 (It's Possible) Times food writer Frank Bruni stressed that it "was an experiment for lean times,...
View ArticleGuantanamo Defenders Finally Have Their Say
There are two problems with William Glabersonâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s New York Times News Analysis piece (12/10/08), 'Relatives of 9/11 Victims Add a Passionate Layer to Guantanamo Debate." Let's...
View ArticleBob Kerrey, New School's 'Moderate' War Criminal
With Bob Kerrey back in the news (New York Times, 12/11/08) as the faculty of the New School University that he heads gives him a vote of no confidence, it's worth recalling the kid-glove treatment...
View ArticleThe Mixed Message of Shoe-Throwing
By now most people have seen the video footage of the Iraqi journalist Muntader al-Zaidi throwing his shoes at George W. Bush. The New York Times helps you put it in perspective: The shoe-throwing...
View ArticleThe Unchanging Mideast Cycle of Violence
The corporate media template for explaining Mideast violence can be summed up like this: Palestinians attack, Israel retaliates. It wasn't surprising, then, to read this lead in today's New York Times...
View ArticleThe Bible Tells Me…Something Else
The New York Times' Charles Blow writes on the op-ed page ("Heaven for the Godless?,"12/27/08): "The Bible makes it clear that heaven is a velvet-roped V.I.P. area reserved for Christians. Jesus said...
View ArticleIsraeli Pitfalls, Palestinian Lives
When you routinely report about Israel and Gaza through the eyes of Israelis, the results can be awkward, like today's New York Times front-pager that frames what was a human catastrophe for many...
View ArticleNYT Hypocrisy on White Phosphorus
When white phosphorus was used by Saddam Hussein, the weapon was identified by U.S. intelligence as a "chemical weapon." The New York Times (3/22/95) seemed to concur; In an article noting that white...
View ArticleNYT: International Law Is 'Anti-Israel'
The New York Times today makes a rare, if highly obfuscatory, reference to the fact that Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory continues despite nearly unanimous international consensus,...
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