Posted on 03/17/2009 11:06:43 AM PDT by AIM Freeper
Among those with useful insights on the New York Times’s refusal to cover the Chas Freeman controversy, Don Feder was blistering: “In a sane world,” he wrote, “Freeman wouldn’t even be allowed to read National Intelligence Estimates, let alone be responsible for generating them. The Times’s efforts to low-key this disastrous appointment is typical of its attempts to run interference for the administration.”
The Grey Lady is a specialty for Feder, a longtime syndicated columnist and commentator. He edits a website called Boycott the New York Times, a project of Accuracy in Media.
In the wake of the Freeman controversy, there was the usual talk about the “Zionist lobby” crushing dissent. And to be sure Israel, like any country, has its lobby. How powerful it is, compared to the Mexico lobby or the Saudi lobby or the Chinese lobby, is debatable. (My own estimate is: about 30 percent as powerful as the China lobby, or 15 percent as powerful as the farm lobby.) A more interesting question for media watchers: How powerful a lobby does it take to keep a major political controversy out of the pages of the New York Times?
Even Feder, who has low expectations for the self-proclaimed Newspaper of Record, was surprised by the news blackout. “It was absurd for the Times not to cover it from the get-go,” he says. “Here you have the man who is preparing the National Intelligence Estimates, which are crucially important to national security, and to say he’s a man with ‘questionable ties’ is the understatement of the year. His foundation [the Middle East Policy Council] was funded by [Saudi] Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, an advocate of ‘stealth jihad.’ He’s the board of China’s overseas oil company. Normal people would look at that and say there might be a problem here. The New York Times decided not to cover the story because they didn’t want to cause problems for an Obama appointee.”
The problem with the Times isn’t that its readership is huge, though it is huge. The problem is that the Times is the Velvet Underground of newspapers. Lou Reed’s old band didn’t sell many records, the story goes, but everybody who bought their record started a band. The Times may not be read by everybody, but it’s read by everybody who’s anybody in the media. Through its influence on the Associated Press, broadcast news, and the second- and third-tier dailies, the Times and its biases end up shaping the news in markets far, far removed from the paper’s home turf.
And the paper can be breathtaking in its arrogance. The editors of the Times believe that the news is what they say it is. And if they don’t like a story, they will try to ignore it out of existence. Feder has documented this at some length.
“Take the March for life in Washington, D. C. You have 250,000 to 300,000 people show up. In the New York Times: nothing. No photo, no story, not even a national brief. Nothing. The Times has decided that what it chooses to recognize as news is news, and nothing else is. As soon as he was in office, Obama immediate abolished the Mexico City policy and says he’s going to push the Freedom of Choice Act — a radical reorientation of administration policy on abortion. Despite all that, 300,000 in Washington, protesting that, is not news to the New York Times. If it were a pro-FOCA rally of 25,000 people, or 25 people, that’s news. But not this.”
The good news, of course, is that the Chas Freeman story suggests that the Times’s relevance is declining almost as quickly as its profit. The media did its job on the Chas Freeman story, giving citizens the information they needed to influence political action. But in this case, “the media” didn’t include the Newspaper of Record, which was sitting on the sidelines.
Gee, I love my tagline. It’s accuracy is at LEAST equal to that of the Times.
One thought, though, It would also be accurate if it read
NY TIMES: WE PRINT THE NEWS IF IT FITS OUR VIEWS
The NY Who? Never heard of it.
FYI..check out the image in post #2...worth a grab, methinks!!!
The economic impact of the Obama/Pelosi Recession greatly leverages the effect of any protest or boycott of the evil Old Grey Hag’s declining number of advertisers.
Now is the time to strike!
So who should we write e-mails to to protest their advertising in the NY Slimes? Names, products, e-mails please!
And answering my own question leads to the following user friendly link:
http://boycottnyt.com/take-action/
Among those with useful insights on the New York Times's refusal to cover the Chas Freeman controversy, Don Feder was blistering: "In a sane world," he wrote, "Freeman wouldn't even be allowed to read National Intelligence Estimates, let alone be responsible for generating them. The Times's efforts to low-key this disastrous appointment is typical of its attempts to run interference for the administration." ... "Here you have the man who is preparing the National Intelligence Estimates, which are crucially important to national security, and to say he's a man with 'questionable ties' is the understatement of the year. His foundation [the Middle East Policy Council] was funded by [Saudi] Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, an advocate of 'stealth jihad.' He's [on] the board of China's overseas oil company. Normal people would look at that and say there might be a problem here. The New York Times decided not to cover the story because they didn't want to cause problems for an Obama appointee." ... "Take the March for life in Washington, D. C. You have 250,000 to 300,000 people show up. In the New York Times: nothing. No photo, no story, not even a national brief. Nothing. The Times has decided that what it chooses to recognize as news is news, and nothing else is. As soon as he was in office, Obama immediate abolished the Mexico City policy and says he's going to push the Freedom of Choice Act -- a radical reorientation of administration policy on abortion. Despite all that, 300,000 in Washington, protesting that, is not news to the New York Times. If it were a pro-FOCA rally of 25,000 people, or 25 people, that's news. But not this."
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