Monday, July 16, 2007

More Compare & Contrast

It’s worth remembering that the AP’s Aaron Beard (below) entered the case without an extensive background in criminal justice issues—his regular beat is North Carolina sports. Nor did he begin the case with the kinds of sources that Joe Neff or reporters from the Chronicle would use effectively.

In this respect, he started at the same point as the key reporters (Duff Wilson) and columnists (Selena Roberts, Harvey Araton) with the New York Times. Beard’s ability to work hard, do his job, and produce a consistent stream of quality reporting makes all the more troubling the Times’ poor performance on the case.

Take the two most egregious examples.

1.) According to the New York Times (Duff Wilson, August 25, 2006):
The dancers stopped. An argument ensued. Using a racial epithet, someone yelled that they had asked for white dancers, not black ones. That much is agreed. It was 12:04 a.m. March 14.
In fact, of course, almost no one agreed with this portrayal of events—and the statements of all three captains and Kim Roberts explicitly contradicted it. The only three people who adhered to this timeline appeared to be Mike Nifong, Crystal Mangum, and Duff Wilson.

Yet nearly 11 months later, the false claim that racial epithets occurred at the party while Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty were present remains the official version of events, according to the New York Times. The paper has never corrected this cut-and-dry journalistic error.

2.) According to the New York Times (Selena Roberts, March 31, 2006):
Something happened March 13, when a woman, hired to dance at a private party, alleged that three lacrosse players sexually assaulted her in a bathroom for 30 minutes . . . Players have been forced to give up their DNA, but to the dismay of investigators, none have come forward to reveal an eyewitness account.
A few days later, the Times ran a brief correction noting that the captains had given voluntary statements. But in April 2006, then-Times public editor Byron Calame effectively corrected the correction, stating that based on his review of the facts, “Selena Roberts, a Times sports columnist, had ample reason for her recent concern about a ‘code of silence.’”

In fact, of course, his making the false claim that the players were engaged in a “wall of silence” formed one of the many items for which Mike Nifong was disbarred. To the extent that “silence” occurred, in any case, it was imposed by Nifong, who informed both Joe Cheshire and Bob Ekstrand that he was only interested in hearing from lacrosse players who either would confess or implicate teammates.

Yet more than 15 months later, the false claim that the players engaged in a “code of silence” remains the official version of events, according to the New York Times—a version blessed, even more remarkably, by the paper’s “public editor.”

Those inclined to minimize Beard’s performance, then, would do well to look at the embarrassingly inaccurate portrayals of lacrosse case events penned by other reporters who, like Beard, began the case with sports backgrounds and few if any local criminal justice sources.

86 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Beard’s ability to work hard, do his job, and produce a consistent stream of quality reporting makes all the more troubling the Times’ poor performance on the case."

Heaping high praise on Beard for doing his job properly reeks of the "soft bigotry of low expectations." A primary lesson I think everyone should take from this case is just how bad most mainstream "reporting" is.

Next time you pick up a newspaper, whether you're reading about Iraq, global warming, Paris Hilton or your hometown's zoning commission, keep in mind that the story was far more likely written by a Duff Wilson than by an Aaron Beard.

MikeZPurdue said...

Why doesn't The Times report on the current
Code of Silence by the Durham police? They
won't answer any questions about this matter.
That's a true "blue wall of silence"

Well, The Times might say, they're keeping quiet
pending civil litigation. Well, at the time, the
boys were facing actual legal charges leading to jail time!!!!!!!!
And, yet, the reality is they were willing to talk
to the police WITH their lawyers present WHICH
is their right!!

And aren't we still waiting for The Times apology?

Anonymous said...

KC, you are not getting the full facts, as you have NEVER interviewed Victoria Peterson!

kcjohnson9 said...

To the 1.12:

Your allegation is true: I confess :)

MikeZPurdue said...

Haha about Victoria Peterson. LOL

She would be a wealth of uninformation.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if what is going on Eastern Michigan now might be a partial explanation for Duke's [unforunately too] quick responde to allegations against the LAX team?

Anonymous said...

Good points, K.C. The New York Times is defined by inaccurate, biased, and just plain sloppy work in this case. I cannot help but wonder if that pretty much is the M.O. of the NY Times in all of its stories.

The Times once might have been the "newspaper of record," but now we have to see it as the newspaper of Walter Duranty, Jayson Blair, Judith Miller, and, now, Duff Wilson.

In one sense, this horrible coverage was deliberate. The Times operated according to a preconceived template, and nothing -- nothing -- was going to let the truth get in the way of a good story. Of course, keep in mind that the NY Times actually considers Paul Krugman to be an economist instead of the political operative that he is.

Anonymous said...

Early on Victoria Peterson urged Nifong to have the feds come in to investigate. Appears to me she was on target!

Anonymous said...

The NYTimes journalistic standards are non-existent, and they just can't seem to figure out why their circulation is tanking.

Anonymous said...


Anonymous said...
I wonder if what is going on Eastern Michigan now might be a partial explanation for Duke's [unforunately too] quick responde to allegations against the LAX team?

Jul 16, 2007 1:18:00 PM


What's going on at EMU? Are you referring to this:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=3297153

mac said...

Hi, Bill: agree completely.
Paul Krugman is to editorial econ. as Hannibal Lecter is
to vegetarianism.

Anonymous said...

Bill Anderson is correct; it is indeed the Times's MO to misreport (a k a lie) about stories dealing with African Americans.

With few exceptions, the following is the Times's off-the-record policy:

1. Never report on the prevalence, and especially the viciousness, of black-on-white/Asian crime.

2. Accentuate the gravity of any situation wherein the perp is white, victim black.

3. Exaggerate the accomplishments of all striving blacks--entrepreneurs, artists, politicians, etc.

4. Blame white society for black failure.

5. Use the Education section to lobby for money for "education." Also use same section to lobby for more quotas, etc.

6. Use the editorial and columnist sections to advocate for 1-5 above.

However, despite the above, I would maintain that the New York Times remains the finest paper in the nation, and that reports of its imminent demise are exaggerated.

Polanski

3.

wayne fontes said...

I too am underwhelmed by Beard's performance. If an obscure history professor publishing on a low traffic website can develop the top network of sources on this case what was stopping a professional writer based in North Carolina? He was local, had some contacts and derived his living from the story.

Sorry KC but your own existence undercuts this post.


I hope your book does include some information about your relationship with the defense and the defendants.

Anonymous said...

Duff got most things wrong but he was the first to report the BFT.

Nailed it. Hero in his own small way.

Anonymous said...

As the Times - both LA and NY, the WP and many others are declining in circulation, as 1:23 writes " they can figure out why their circulation is tanking," I read three papers a day until the lies and bias of the reporters was so obvious, I quit them. It looks like many other readers have done the same. They are so blantant, I don't care if they go out of business.

Anonymous said...

John in Carolina wrote " In spite of being in the center of one of the biggest news stories of the year, the Herald Sun's circulation declined at least 10&."

Anonymous said...

1:57 I would not believe Duff if he was swearing on a stack of bibles. His involvement in the "BFT" statement shows what this "story is a lie. Then, of course, Duff claims Levicy made him lie.

One Spook said...

Polanski @ 1:45 writes:

"However, despite the above, I would maintain that the New York Times remains the finest paper in the nation, and that reports of its imminent demise are exaggerated."

Given your opinions, Pol, what is it you like about the New York Times, its "Home and Garden" section?

Its actual (not what it reports) readership is in decline; it's stock has tanked; and it has layed off hundreds and hundreds of employees because it is losing tremendous amounts of money. It is, in fact, in demise.

It is an expensive advertising circular with a nice Arts section.

As a NEWSpaper, it is garbage.

One Spook

Anonymous said...

Polanski:

The Palm Beach Post (Florida) is the poor-man's NYT. It just ran a loving story about these teens who gangraped a Haitian woman. Of course, all their problems are society's (that is, whites') fault. Here is the straight news story from another source:

WEST PALM BEACH — Two teenagers were accused of gang raping a woman and forcing her 12-year-old son to join in the attack, then beating him and pouring cleaning solution into his eyes. ...

"Any rape case is horrible but this takes it to another level, something you can't think of even in your worst dreams," police spokesman Ted White said.

According to the police report, a man knocked on the woman's door at about 9 p.m. and told her he* had a flat tire. The mother and son, whom police have not identified, went outside and were ambushed by a group of gun-wielding suspects.

The victims told police they were forced back into their home and beaten and sexually assaulted. According to authorities, the men raped, sodomized and beat the woman, then forced her son to participate in the assault at gunpoint, making him have sex with his mother in front of them.

The boy was then beaten and had numerous household cleaning liquids poured into his eyes, according to the police report.


Imagine if the rapists had been white teens.

*It's my understanding that the boys told the woman that her car had a flat tire, so this word should be "she", not "he".

GaryB said...

The NYTimes journalistic standards are non-existent, and they just can't seem to figure out why their circulation is tanking.
Jul 16, 2007 1:23:00 PM


Perhaps this whole case should teach all of us to be more careful. Circulation is down at the NYT, but less so than most other major papers.

The root cause seems to be ... the net. I cut down my own news subscriptions to one local paper plus an ethnic rag (Jewish), but I read far more major papers than I used to, and read the NYT daily. Problem is, these papers don't get my revenue, Google does. A new business model has not yet emerged.

Also. The NYT is liberally biased, but probably more due to the liberal bias of large urban cosmopolitan areas. I'd like to see them get back to basics, but I'd flush the rural areas twice before I abandoned the more fun, more creative, more urban/cosmopolitan and yes more liberal areas and their news.

Finally, if the NYTs really does tank, the result won't be a more wonderful world, but a sure sign of our further decline into something like Bush's vision of an intrusive/abusive authoritarian state. An outcome I'd hope to avoid and thus I hope they will self correct. I personally know a reporter on the NYT technology side who is extremely hard working, intelligent and under constant pressure to produce. He has standards, checks and balances and I think he covers wide areas well, but I can see how facts can slip under the volume and pressure of the work.

It does seem that technical areas in the press as well as in academics seem less liable to the PC rot. Let's hope it remains so.

Anonymous said...

gary said at 2:12 PM ...

Finally, if the NYTs really does tank, the result won't be a more wonderful world, but a sure sign of our further decline into something like Bush's vision of an intrusive/abusive authoritarian state.

Yes, if the NYT goes under, it will be Bush's fault. LOL ... Here's your sign!

Anonymous said...

Your well-taken comments on the AP reporter makes me wonder when the New York Times will write some kind of retrospective article detailing all the mistakes, calumnies, and misrepresentations previously published. No apologies from NYT are necessary (or expected), but finally publishing the truth would be nice.

Anonymous said...

The NYT's first public editor, Dan Okrent, picked his battles and sought to entrench the office so that it couldn't be easily ignored within the NYT, much less be easily abolished. I didn't always agree with his calls on issues, but I admired him. Not all my fellow conservatives appreciated him, but in retrospect his efforts look better and better. NYT Public Editor Byron Calame, who took over at the end of Okrent's term, has been pretty much management's hack, with all the obtuseness which that implies in a case like the NYT's. The new guy, Clark Hoyt, seems to be no better.

The NYT's articles are reprinted in newspapers across the USA by the way. They're not AP, but the ultimate readership is still quite large.

Anonymous said...

The NY Post is a lot more honest than most papers and a lot more fun. Their circulation is going up

Anonymous said...

gary said: "...a sure sign of our further decline into something like Bush's vision of an intrusive/abusive authoritarian state."

I was not aware of Bush articulating an "intrusive/abusive" state as such. If that is his vision, then he should articulate it as such, not be assigned by someone else. Otherwise, that's gary's view of Bush's view.

This sounds like it came out of the NYT...

Then, the NYT is liberally biased because of "the liberal bias of large urban cosmopolitan areas."

Don't understand the point as it relates to accuracy/fairness in the media. As an analogy, the NAACP newsletter is more biased against whites due to its readership. WTF?

Yes, getting back to the basics would be nice - for everyone. :)

Ed

Anonymous said...

At Eastern Michigan Univ, a black man raped and killed a white girl. Univ president lied to parents and told them that it was just an accident and covered it up until another student revealed it. Univ president was fired by the board. Setback for g88 but perhaps duke aa can recruit him? Waiting for the NAACP statement..

One Spook said...

Gary @ 2:12 writes:

"The NYT is liberally biased, but probably more due to the liberal bias of large urban cosmopolitan areas. I'd like to see them get back to basics, but I'd flush the rural areas twice before I abandoned the more fun, more creative, more urban/cosmopolitan and yes more liberal areas and their news.

"... if the NYTs really does tank, the result won't be a more wonderful world, but a sure sign of our further decline into something like Bush's vision of an intrusive/abusive authoritarian state."


I'll have to stop drinking coffee when I read some of these comments so I don't have to keep cleaning my monitor.

I'm not fan of Bush, but for goodness sake, Gary ... Bush is not responsible for the decline of the Times, and no one is asking them to abandon their coverage of all the wonderful aspects of "urban/cosmopolitan and yes more liberal areas," such as folks living for a year without using toilet paper.

What KC (a rather new convert to understanding the perfidy of the Times) and others are asking for is HONESTY, accurate reporting, and doing the job a journalist should do, rather than merely parroting false facts in support of some agenda-driven bias or meta-narrative as we've seen in this entire story.

That is why he compares Beard's work (mostly accurate) on the Duke hoax, to the work of Times reporter Wilson and Times columnists Roberts and Araton (mostly innacurate).

And strangely, KC arrives at this conclusion coming from the viewpoint of am admitted liberal who has, in his own words, NEVER voted for a Republican in his life!

Without the help of George Bush, the Times has, in the immortal words of a Sergeant I knew, "shit in its own mess kit."

One Spook

Anonymous said...

anon at 1:20 pm,

Before we go too far down the road in praise of Ms. Peterson, let's remember that the reason she wanted the feds called in was to investigate the "hate crimes" committed by the three defendants.

Only in Durham.

Anonymous said...

Re me at 2:48: warning, irony detector needs service.

Anonymous said...

Correction of my 2:48 comment.

At the time Ms. Peterson first called for a federal investigation, there were no defendants.

One would suppose that Ms. Peterson was calling for a federal investigation of any "hate crime" committed by any (but unknown) Duke lacrosse team member.

Only in Durham.


footnote to anon at 2:54

Thanks. Did not know if irony was intended or not. Others may not be aware of the history.

Anonymous said...

JLS says...,

Krugman is a living example of the dangers of working against comparative advantage. Krugman has a comparative advantage as an economist. He is trained as an economist. He is experienced as an economist. Despite my general disagreement with his political views, when he writes on economics, his training in economics stops him from being too outrageous.

Since he abandoned his comparative advantage and quit specializing in economics, he has made foolish statement after foolish statement.

Anonymous said...

One Spook

What I Like About NY Times:

1. international coverage if fabulous, and the quality of the writing is first rate

2. ditto most of the national coverage (see above caveat)

3. agree with Gary: technology coverage is good, as well as the science reporting

4. pretty good book reviewers, but needs improvement (prefer NY Review of Books)

5. the best dance coverage in the world; splendid film and theater reviewers/reporters; very good arts and architecture coverage

6. overall level of writing is an easy A-

7. sophisticated coverage of complex economic trends

8. the On Language column by William Safire

9. Good design; decent photography

Hamilton--good catch, but I wish I hadn't read that

Polanski

Anonymous said...

anon at 2:30 pm (and to reinforce anon at 2:31 pm)

"...makes me wonder when the New York Times will write some kind of retrospective article detailing all the mistakes, calumnies, and misrepresentations previously published."

The NYT via Byron Calame has already been there and done that: What Byron Calame Should Have Written

Anonymous said...

JLS,

I agree. I'd also add that when he did economics he did great work -- worth a Nobel IMHO.

I guess back then he wrote for other economists and knew that no referee would have put up with what he writes now in his reincarnation as a pundit. Another explanation could be that now he writes for the NYT...

An economist who uses and teaches the work of Krugman the economist.

Anonymous said...

Let me suggest that, if you are not familiar with the Myers Briggs Personality Inventory, that you obtain and read David Keirsey's book "Please Understand Me II" or Linda Berens' "Quick Guide to the 16 Personality Types". People acquire, process, and use information very differently. The New York Times is touchy-feely, the WSJ is sensible and much more organized. How many of you regularly read People magazine? Not many would be my guess. But it is just about required reading for the Nancy Grace, Jerry Springer crowd. At least the Myers Briggs gives us a better handle on how different folks think and why they act they way they do. Winston Churchill said, if you are not a liberal at age 18, you do not have a heart; if you are not a conservative at age 35, you do not have a brain. I may have the ages wrong but you take the point.

As far as my earlier post on Duke's opportunity to found a School of African American studies, I was talking about pros not more of the same old garbage. Gangs a problem? Get the police chiefs from New York, LA, etc. Mix with Duke lawyers and Duke psychiatrists. Ask them, if given a free hand, what would you do about gangs and gang members? Then find a way to implement the suggestions in Durham as a demonstration project. Put some resources behind it. Co-opt the black community to cooperate, hell, get the Black Panthers on board to help their brothers. Then assess the results. Work farms? Vocational scholarships? Hard Labor? Public humiliation? I have no clue what would work. That is the sort of thing I was talking about. If there is no answer, then outlaw gang members in the classic sense, society owes them nothing. Turn them out. No welfare, health care, no protection under the law -- they are on their own. Harsh? you bet. So are drive-by killings.

Anonymous said...

Polanski,

I have to disagree with 1.

I'm an immigrant and the NYT coverage of my native country is disgraceful to say the least -- Hoax-style to be precise.

I wonder how many others from different countries who can compare NYT's reports with their direct sources have reached the same conclusion and canned it.

Anonymous said...

3:28

From which country do you hail?

NY Times is hard on Israel. Are you an Israeli?

Polanski

Anonymous said...

I'm not from Israel, but the NYT slants on that country ARE Hoax-style. The moral-equivilancy (not even that, sometimes) in the NY Times of the two societies/forms of governments/violence against civilians/human rights...on and on is 88 worthy.

(not 3:28)

Anonymous said...

Polanski,

Italy

3:28

Anonymous said...

And I agree with 3:58 about NYT's coverage of Israel.

3:28 (again)

Anonymous said...

Polanski

If you think the NYT's international coverage is so great, please give us some examples concerning a subject where you can independently verify that they got it right.

Anonymous said...

Who's going to report that the Durham police knew CGM was the town prostitute? Did the Durham police "know of her" when they got to the Kroger parking lot? Who was told to erase the police radio tapes?

Anonymous said...

4:36

Levicy. Levicy did it all.

No Levicy no hoax.

When you question who did what just plug in Levicy.

There is your answer.

Gary Packwood said...

Anonymous 4:36 said...

...Who was told to erase the police radio tapes?
::
Dick (Duke JD) Nixon's secretary?
::
GP

Anonymous said...

To Ralph Phelan

You're right. Ny Times international reporting really sucks.

PULITZER PRIZE FOR INTERNATIONAL REPORTING TO NY TIMES

1955. Harrison E. Salisbury--Russia
1958. Staff of NY Times. general distinguished coverage.
1960. Abe Rosenthal--Poland
1964. David Halberstam. Vietnam War
1973. Max Frankel. Nixon in China
1974. Hedrick Smith. Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
1976. Sydney Schanberg. Communist takeover in Cambodia
1978. Henry Kamm. Indochina boat people
1982. John Darnton. Poland
1983. Thomas Friedman. Israeli invasion of Beirut
1988. T. Friedman. balanced coverage of Israel
1989. Bill Keller. detailed coverage of USSR
1990. Nicholas Kristof. China: mass movement for democracy
1991. Serge Schmemann. German reunification
1993. John Burns. destruction of Sarajevo
1997. J. Burns. Brutality of Taliban regime in Afghanistan
1998. Staff of NY Times. Mexican drug corruption
2002. Barry Bearak. life in war-torn Afghanistan
2006. Joseph Kahn, Jim Yardley. [coverage unknown]

Since 1955, the NY Times has racked up an incredible NINETEEN Pulitzers, which of course does not include other prestigious prizes for reporting.

If you study the recipients list, you'll find some of the best reporters who have ever walked the planet--Halberstam, Schanberg, Jim Yardley, Abe Rosenthal, Hedrick Smith, Nicholas Kristof.

Polanski

Anonymous said...

Oh boy, Pulitzers. That's unbiased proof....

Anonymous said...

For Goodness sake , it was all G Bush's fault!

The NYT is a sick joke and its reporting is so left biased it will slowly wilt further into its Marxist abyss and oblivion!

Anonymous said...

The English Prigs are at it again.

Anonymous said...

You know I am starting to think most white people have become delusional. Post after post of blue sky optimism about getting the Group of 88 and the Black Panthers to help with the "plight of the black community." Do you honestly think they give a damn about that? These two groups used the Duke non-rape case to vent their hatred of whites, and yet white people assign them the nobility of wanting to help blacks. They don't want that. Open your eyes. This was about hatred looking for an excuse to happen. These people hate whites, hate the wealthy, and especially hate wealthy white males. If any of these clowns gave a damn about helping blacks they would have done so rather than rail against white lacrosse players.

I find it astonishing that white people keep forgiving incidents like this-- and they even immediately return to the whole "how can we help the blacks who at every turn give us the stiff middle finger?" I am 40 years old and this hatred has been directed at whites my entire lifetime. I used to be a liberal until I opened my eyes. If I hear one more white person whine "Why haven't the Black Panthers or Jesse or AL apologized to the Lacrosse players?" I will throw up. They NEVER apologize. And that's because they HATE US.

Respect is a two way street and it is not our job to keep blacks in permanent custodial care. It'd be one thing if they appreciated that for fifty years we've tried everything we can think of to get them into the American mainstream, but instead they seem to hate us more every day. Black violent crime is getting worse every day. Their "leadership" is nothing more than a pack of opportunistic leaches who seem to exist for no other reason than to sue white institutions and businesses. No other racial group does these things. The Duke Lacrosse case is just one more in a long list.

Stop thinking these people have a conscience to appeal to.

Anonymous said...

KC: Do you REALLY think you can make the New York Slimes change its editorial policy? You can point out its hypocrisy 'til the cows come home and it won't change. Same with the Hurled Scum in Durham. They're fading fast, so forget 'em.

Anonymous said...

Pulitzers, Schmoolitzers. That the Pulitzer Committee manifestly shares the same managed news biases of the NYT means of course they're going to shower awards on it. They're like the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. Find a journalist who has written a truthful, revealing story under adverse circumstances? Don't send the PC (Pulitzer Committee) to find him.

I gave up on the NYT 20 years ago for its biased reporting. The NYT Corp. owns a lot of small town papers and fills them with the same trash.

Tom

Anonymous said...

Paul Krugman?

"there is some shit I will not eat"

From i sing of olaf glad and big
by e. e. cummings

The Conspiracy to Keep you Poor and Studid

Check out the numerous Krugman and other NYT articles under their own sub-title as you scroll down the page:

Krugman Corrects His Column
Krugman Corrects

Krugman Retires to the Fainting Sofa
Fainting Sofa

Krugman One-Year of Web Silence
Web Silenc

Krugman's Hate Crimes
Hate Crimes

etc.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for bringing Beard to my attention. I will be on the look out for his articles in the future.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of news coverage.

I read that Eastern Michigan University fired their president. About 20 faculty members wrote and demanded he be fired.

The president lied to parents about the death of their daughter.He said it was of natural causes. The girl was white and the accused rapist killer is black. Of couse you would never know by the news reports. Some reports did not use his full name which includes "Amid", maybe so no one could figure out that is was a black.

I got so sick of reading about these awful white Duke 3 rapist, and poor blackworking single mother. But in the Michigan case, you have to go through newspaper after newspaper before you find a picture of the accused killer. I could not find one report that gave his race.

There was a candlelight vigil for the girl, no potbangers for the accuser. No hateful racist whites demanding justice.

Makes me proud to see whites behave with such dignity, rather than like the lynch mob at Duke.

Anonymous said...

Why Krugman is Dangerous

And, of course, the NYT is culpable in letting him get away with his nonsense. Krugman is very much like the Gang of 88, neither know the word apology.

Anonymous said...

KC,

God Bless you. A liberal who see what BS the Times puts out, and will not retract. Just think about the last 50 years of history and how the Times has tried to frame it. These people are evil, marxist that have no shame. Unless they are caught red handed they will never give it up. Wonder why they are not a player anymore. Because honest people, liberals and conservative can see lies. I think honest liberals must be embrassed. Guess that's why their stock sucks?
Kemp

Anonymous said...

6:07

re "hatred looking for an excuse to happen"

I'll get back to that...In the meantime there were 2 incredibly PC news stories in NY media:

1. "Americans are getting shorter"

2. Head of firefighters union makes a controversial claim--"Firefighters need to be competently intelligent"

Neither issue was addressed honestly. Unbelievably, the height topic did not mention our short Hispanic immigration problem. And I guess you can't talk about intelligence if the article is addressing the very low black/Hispanic pass rate on firefighters exam.

WRT 6:07, that's exactly what the Duke case was all bout: blacks taking the opportunity to denigrate white people (and reap more goodies, eg, full departmental status for the cesspool known as AAAS). And the MSM went along for the ride.

You people know nothing about journalism--great journalism--it you have the temerity to ridicule those fine international reporters for the NY Times. That sucks. These guys take risks and work diligently.

Polanski

Anonymous said...

Polanski, inre; "Americans getting shorter"...

I heard that on the radia today and arrived at the same conclusion.

Another sin of omission...

Anonymous said...

Inre: NYT, they may very well be the best there is, but speaks woefully of the pool.

I don't trust anything that comes for the NYT...the articles, the positioning of the stories, the sources used, etc...

In that regard the NYT is quite mind expanding, or sorts like Mike Nifong. One must consider the exact opposite of what is said, and search for what is left unsaid.

At least they are both consistent.

Anonymous said...

Newspapers are slowly dying because young people prefer the Internet. I also believe that newspapers suffer because they cannot have links.

Anonymous said...

Sez the Oracle:

Since 1955, the NY Times has racked up an incredible NINETEEN Pulitzers-

You people know nothing about journalism--great journalism--if you have the temerity to ridicule those fine international reporters for the NY Times.
--------------------------------

Great journalism, like Walter Duranty on the Soviets, and Harrison Salisbury's on Cuba.

Both approaches designed to manipulate public opinion leftward, by selective omission of facts AND intentional mendacity. Both posing as 'news', written by 'reporters' as if describing actual events.

The current crowd at the NYT is more inept than those inkslingers, and hardly anyone but the jailed and murdered Ukrainians and Cubans knew the truth behind their stories, since there were no blogs. But now there are blogs, and the stock tanks.

Talking about a blue (well, Grey) wall of silence, the NYT is it when it comes to reporting ALL the news. But then, their editors have long understood the code behind 'fit to print'.

Anonymous said...

NYT trivia:

The motto at the top of the frontpage reads:

ALL THE NEWS
THAT'S FIT TO PRINT

It used to read:

ALL THE NEWS THAT'S
FIT TO PRINT

When did it change?

R.R.Hamilton
(never a NYT subscriber)

Anonymous said...

Yes, well they, the NYT, carries on in the tradition of Jayson Blair.

Anonymous said...

Hamilton

Interesting observation. My guess is that modern designers and art direcors, when creating 2 lines that are supposed to stand out, now prefer the 2d line to be the longer line. It's my preference as well.

Polanski

Anonymous said...

Is everyone on vacation?

Anonymous said...

The NYT has some fine reporters, and John F. Burns is a case in point, respected across the political spectrum, and lending some lustre to the tarnished Pulitzer. The problem is that publisher Pinch Sulzberger is (1) a dimwit, not somebody who should be in charge of a newspaper during difficult times for newspapers, and (2) a leftist dimwit, who wants the NYT to be half-way an "alternative" newspaper, crammed though it is with wealth porn (especially the ads), and whose personnel decisions have included such losers as Howell Raines as chief editor. Look at those mediocre political columnists like Mo Dowd and Frank Rich, pottering with surface and theater, gradually dumbing down the whole liberal sector of the polity. Look at the seepage of editorial ideological slant into "news analysis" and even straightforward reporting. This is the newspaper that editorially argued for sentimental reasons to root for the Boston Red Sox to beat the home team Yankees in the World Series without mentioning that it owns the Red Sox. Even small-town newspapers have more class than that. Now we hear of baffling elevators, an awful stink, and dead, maggot-filled rats falling from loose tiles in the ceilings, all at the new NYT HQ. It sounds like a rat infestation was answered with rat poison and the building is full of dead rats scattered in hundreds, maybe thousands, of hard-to-reach places.

Meanwhile, vast infinities away, past the Gate of Deeper Delusion and the twilight reaches of Wollman’s Rink, the crawling chaos Pinch Sulzberger* strides brooding into the pink castle in the cold waste not reassuringly far from 43d Street. He peers out an ornate rupture through which he sees a distant Star-Spangled Banner yet waving. Enraged, he jerks his head instantaneously in all directions and spits in all of them, then coughs, belches, sneezes, and performs many such acts in hardly credible succession, dancing spastically until he stubs his toe on the floor. Pinch gestures obscenely at the floor, then trips on a dead, maggot-bursting rat, one of many falling periodically from the ceilings, as they do in all that he builds. Pinch himself falls a-gobble and slides the marble hall's whole length (the floor was biased) -- all the while hissing vicious, yet inane, insinuations at the obsequious journalists of Gotham whom he had snatched abruptly from their scented revels in the marvelous sunset cocktail parties.

* Refuses to strike Pulitzer awarded for NYT's Walter Duranty's reporting which covered up Stalin's mass murders during the runup to the Ukrainian artificial famine whereby Stalin murdered millions and which Duranty also covered up.

Anonymous said...

JLS says....,

re: anon 3:22

Nobel worthy, be serious. Krugman was a competent international economist with a fancy degree who got good jobs.

I am sure he has a nice vitae. I can think of NOTHING important he wrote. Let me know what his theoretical contributions to economics are? Let me know what course one can not teach without mentioning his work? Let me know what empirical test he has performed that meausured a relationship that was crucial to economic policy.

Anonymous said...

JLS,

just out of curiosity, if you don't mind, what do you teach and what is your research on?

3:22

Anonymous said...

Polanski, I asked "When", not "Why". And I think you're incorrect on the reason for it. Read the motto again and think about "the 24 hour news cycle" and declining standards of decorum.

RRH

Anonymous said...

I was just visiting audible.com, one of the largest onlines sources for downloadable books, and no. 5 on their "Current Release" list is Pressler's "Its Not About the Truth".

It is good to see that this important book is now available online.

GaryB said...

Jul 16, 2007 2:47:00 PM & Jul 16, 2007 2:24:00 PM
Yes, if the NYT goes under, it will be Bush's fault. LOL ...


As the song says "Still a man here's what he wants to hear and disregards the rest ..." -- Sounds of silence

What I said: "but a sure sign of our further decline into something like Bush's vision of an intrusive/abusive state"

The NY Times decline is categorically NOT Bush's fault, but is instead (perhaps!) a general SIGN of cultural decline. To be precise: I posit that the very same forces that caused us to elect an inept boy to be the nation's leader are those that make for sloppy/bad/terrible reporting in the NY Times: A decline in rationality, neglect of process, emotional primacy, laziness of success erodes the former culture of meritocracy.

Listen to Rush's rants, and you'll hear the PC of the right every bit as stupid as the PC of the left. Indeed, there's almost nothing separating the far right from the far left in style (pompous surety) or in results (disaster).

We've gone from being an attractor state to something seen as much more negative. Our own people, white or black don't study the sciences and engineering as much as they used to, so I need to import foreign students to keep up the talent level in the academic and business areas I'm involved in ... but homeland security and tightened immigration seem designed to keep us safe from ... the dangers of technical progress.

The same laziness of hard work and thought in the sciences seems manifest in our pompous self-righteous rulers, befuddled "ditto heads" on through our post-modern/puerile Marxist social -science Profs.

Same disease, similar symptoms left and right. I just hope it is temporary and can self-correct aka that America's resilience is still there under the current reign of fools.

Finally: I ain't from nor live anywhere remotely near NYC, but I love my visits there. Also, I don't know what I am politically. I'm mostly for balancing power to attempt to keep government small and effective. I think government should also stay out of people's beds whether the beds are for sex or death. I want due process and habeas corpus, not torture in secret places. I don't mind religion, but unless you want religion to end up like it is in Iran (on one side) or in Europe (on the other), you and certainly I want to keep it out of government.

Oh, and I think Bush was and is a failure ... and not a very wise nor moral person either. I respect the father in every area in which I disrespect the son.

Catch ya later.

Anonymous said...

to 10:42

say hi to your pal John McCain

Anonymous said...

gary, with all due respect and with an apology for my strident view, here is a required correction:

You said:

"As the song says "Still a man here's what he wants to hear and disregards the rest ..." -- Sounds of silence"

Please, do justice to the poet by accurately quoting his work:

"Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest ..."

You're singular mistake to properly reiterate the exact language of a iconic musical poem of a prior generation is symptomatic of the problem encountered by all too many historians.

"Let's all just get it right." (Rodney King if he had a brain.)

One Spook said...

inman said... at 11:11 "You're singular mistake to properly reiterate the exact language of a iconic musical poem of a prior generation is symptomatic of the problem encountered by all too many historians.

"Let's all just get it right." (Rodney King if he had a brain.)"


"Your"

Anonymous said...

one spook: Thank you ... I too need an editor.

Anonymous said...

Hamilton

I don't get your question, but I do know that the ascendancy of the minority Sulzberger has been a disaster. Did it change when Pinch came onboard?

P

Anonymous said...

SECRET MEETING OF THE RACE SUMMIT

Washington, D.C.; August 2007


WHITE LEADER: O.k., final offer. David Duke, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Richards, Stacey Koon and the rest of the Los Angeles Police Department and the town of Jasper, Texas for Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the NBPP, the NC-NAACP, and the Nation of Islam?

BLACK LEADER: Deal!

WHITE LEADER: We each get to do with them what we want, no questions asked?

BLACK LEADER: Of course.

WHITE LEADER: What about Ebonics?

BLACK LEADER: [Laughs] We've been jerking your chain about that. We knew it pissed you off. How about jobs and education?

WHITE LEADER: Already lined up.

BLACK LEADER: Even Denny's?

WHITE LEADER: Even Denny's.

BLACK LEADER: You asked us earlier about this "Gang of 88," remember that?

WHITE LEADER: [Nods head]

BLACK LEADER: Let me just say this: We sent Steve Urkel to Canada for a "Symposium" and told him we'd Fedex the return tickets. Nobody gets outta Canada.

WHITE LEADER: You get to keep the New York Times?

BLACK LEADER: And you get Fox.

WHITE LEADER: Was that whole "Reparations" thing more of your ... ahh ... jerking our chain?

BLACK LEADER: You catch on quickly.

WHITE LEADER: The joint funeral, what are we going to do about that?

BLACK LEADER: The "N" word and the "R" label will both be put to rest in side-by-side mock funerals in Selma, Alabama.

[Hands are shaken, papers signed]

BLACK LEADER: Now, what do we do about the Lesbians?
_______________

"K.C. was born with a "hungry look" about him, and he still hasn't eaten." Mrs. Johnson at Johnson Family Reunion (1999). MOO! Gregory

Anonymous said...

JLS says....,

re: anon 3:22/10:14

I have taught various classes. My main research has been in monetary aggregation and common currency areas. But I have published a few papers outside those areas.

I can just immediately think of several living non-Nobel winners who have had a large impact on the profession. And I really see little impact on economics from Krugman.

Anonymous said...

"You're right. Ny Times international reporting really sucks.

PULITZER PRIZE FOR INTERNATIONAL REPORTING TO NY TIMES

1955. Harrison E. Salisbury--Russia
..."
Too bad your list only starts in 1955.
You missied the 1949 Pulitzer awarded to Walter Duranty for covering up Stalin's mass murders.

Anonymous said...

Polanski

You name a lot of names at the Times that you respect. But have you independently verified any of their work?

Anonymous said...

Ralph

The Times is basically run by 2 old, very powerful liberal Jewish families: the Ochses and the Sulzbergers, both of which are Friend of the Negro ("FON"). Being FON, the Times has to lie a lot.

In its non FON-related coverage, the Times is usually quite good. Thus its dominance in international reporting, which, if you're not already aware, is the most prestigious aspect of journalism.

Polanski

Anonymous said...

And Ralph...

You're kidding, right, re verifying Times stories?

Don't be silly. The Pulitzer committee in not PC in its recognition of first-rate international reporting.

Polanski

Anonymous said...

"The Pulitzer committee is not PC "

Polanski - I hope you're being sarcastic.

Never mind Walter Duranty's Pulitzer. They also gave one to Peter Arnett. You remember - the guy with the phony Tailwind war-crime story. Last I heard he wound up working for Al-Jazeera.

The Pulitzers have a very strong "blame America first" bias.

I've noticed a pattern of Times fans thinking they only misreport on the subjects the fans know, but are good everywhere else.

You know the Times sucks when they report on the Duke case. You know they suck when they report on Israel. The guy from Italy says they suck when they report on Italy.

All this international writing you think is so good - is any of it about a country you know? Or is it just stylistically pleasant while still false?

Anonymous said...

"The Times is basically run by 2 old, very powerful liberal Jewish families: the Ochses and the Sulzbergers, both of which are Friend of the Negro ("FON"). Being FON, the Times has to lie a lot.

In its non FON-related coverage, the Times is usually quite good. "

Except where it runs into any other liberal shibolleths. See above re: Israel and covering up the failures and crimes of leftist regimes. Add a refusal to let any third world nation be held responsible for its own contributions to its situation, and a refusal to look at international institutions like the UN in terms of their actual performance rather than their ideals and you've got some rather crippled international reporting.

Domestically, in addition to the race and gender (Augusta Golf "crisis") PC they've got a distaste for reporting anything that makes a Democrat look bad (Love them or hate them, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth should not have been a surprise. They were out there before the primaries even started and were part of the reason I supported Lieberman (I live in NH so he was still in the race.) If not for the national press led by the Times sticking their fingers in their ears and chanting "I can't hear you" the Democrats might have had a candidate with a chance of winning in 2004.)

Any time you read a story in the Times, you have to remember that anything a liberal wouldn't want to hear has been left out.

Anonymous said...

Ralph & Polanski,

I don't deny that SOME of the NYT writers are good -- I like a lot T.Friedman, for example.

The problem is that most of the reporters don't seem to do any serious work at all. I strongly suspect that most of them do not speak or read the local language and in Hoax fashion just resort to whatever meta-narrative of the day they pick up from their local contacts.

This is not limited the the NYT -- of course, but the NYT is particularly bad -- and to Italy (I also read French and a bit of Spanish). It also goes the other way around -- reporting by italian papers of US affairs is even worse than the NYT's reporting of italian affairs.

I often wonder why international reporters and their editors seem to have so little respect for their readers and their own product. Do they really think that people don't have access to alternative sources and cannot double check?



The guy from Italy

Anonymous said...

Guy from Italy

What specifically is your issue with the Times? Its coverage of the immigration problem? Government? Economy?

Polanski