FReep of NY Times by DC Chapter & AIM, After Action Report

May 15, 2003 | BillF

[BillF]

In their second lunch time DC mission of the week, FReepers of the DC Chapter gathered in front of the New York Times (NYT) office in Washington, DC. The NYT Washington bureau occupies a portion of an office building that includes various other offices.

The FReep today follows yesterday’s spectacular FReep of the NYT quagmire meeting in NY by the doctor of FReeping, Doctor Raoul. (Click here and read about that. You’ll be glad you did.)

The honor roll of attendance at today’s gathering of eagles: Kristinn, Angelwood, TBP, Xthe17th, WAlford, and BillF.

This was a joint operation of the DC Chapter with the fine people of Accuracy in Media (AIM). In addition to FReeper WAlford, who writes for AIM, there were 4 or 5 other AIMSTERS (?) in attendance, bringing our total forces to ten people.

Kristinn, TBP, and WAlford and the Aimsters were already there when I arrived at 12:30. We marched with our signs in front of the door, occasionally chanting “hey hey, ho ho, Howell Raines has got to go.” Angelwood arrived shortly with additional materials for sign making so that everyone could have a sign to hold. Xthe17th arrived and joined the FReep.

Without my digital camera, I’m hard pressed to remember all of the signs. Someone’s sign had the doctored photo of Blair as though he was now working for CNN to improve its credibility. Another sign was the Drudge headline with upside down NYT logo. (A motorist saw that and shouted “your sign is upside down.”

My sign said:

STOP HOWELL RAINES BEFORE HE LIES AGAIN

Reactions were mostly positive. A cab driver honked his horn and flashed a thumbs up. A bike messenger gently tapped my sign and said “That guy [i.e., Raines] must be a devil, right?” “Well, he doesn’t tell the truth,” I blurted out, not knowing if this guy was mocking us. When he left the building, he waved in friendship.

A guy came over from across the street and seemed sympathetic to the protest and hostile to the NYT. However, when Kristinn told him that some of we marchers were from FR, the guy said something like, “you’re crazy fascists!” and left.

Numerous AIM bumper stickers saying “I don’t believe the New York Times” were given to sympathetic pedestrians.

Dave Stadler of Washington, DC’s channel 9 took some video footage of us marching and spoke to Kristinn. Additionally, an NYT reporter came out and talked to Kristinn and one of the Aimsters.

The threatening storms held off as partly cloudy weather greeted our FReep. The storms have now arrived. The rains are washing the pollen out of the air even as Raines washes away any remaining credibility of the New York Times.

[ladyinred]

Great report from the famous DC Freepers! Imagine that guy calling us fascists! Wonder where he ever got that idea! :-) Probably from the NY Times!!!!!

[Nick Thimmesch]

Rush tried to make mention of this today but did not have either the name nor the sign correct, unfortunately: would have been good for Freep & funny at the same time.

[BillF]

Ping to DC Chapter ping list.

Also, below are corrected links as my word processing program messed up the html. (Sure, blame it on the computer.)

DC Chapter

Spectacular FReep by Doctor Raoul

Accuracy in Media (AIM)

[YourAdHere]

Excellent job as always, Bill. Sorry I could not join you guys today. Keep up the freep!

[BillF]

Ping to two who FReeped today.

[Coleus]

Thanks, great job..

Can you repost the links, they did not seem to work...

[kristinn]

One more of us was there.

Thanks for the write up. I'll add some details while I eat dinner.....

[rabidralph]

Great job, you guys! It sounded like fun.

[Timesink]

Schadenfreude

This is the New York Times Schadenfreude Ping List. Freepmail me to be added or dropped.

[hellinahandcart]

"crazy fascist" bump...:D

[FreeTheHostages]

I still think the worst thing Raines has done recently isn't this Blair issue.

It's quoting an anonymous, low-level military source that the war was in a quagmire and making it the lead news story that day in the NYT.

That's bias, plain and simple. Everyone knows you can find such a source. Elevating those disgruntled quotes to front page news is plain evidence of bias: Raines couldn't possibly have believed the quote was representative of anything. The Times was trying to *make*, not report, news with that story.

That's the worst scandal.

[BillF]

Nina0113

Apologies for leaving you off the attendance honor role. We didn't get a chance to talk at this FReep & I absent-mindedly grouped you with the Aimsters.

[kristinn]

First off, thanks to Don Irvine and the good people at AIM for coming down today. Their presence made a big difference today in getting the message out about the need for accountability at The New York Times.

We were surprised when the reporter for the NYT came out. She started interviewing Don, Angelwood and me, but she quickly turned the interview into a debate.

A Washington Post reporter arrived and Don spoke with him as Angelwood and I continued debating the NYT reporter. The interview was more like Crossfire. She kept defending her paper and its management while Angelwood and I kept hammering away.

She even insisted that we should be protesting at NYT HQ in NYC rather than the D.C. bureau.

She also kept bringing up Stephen Glass's plagiarism while at the New Republic as the same as what's been going on at her paper. While she finally conceded a few points, she continued to argue that it was debatable whether Maureen Dowd mischaracterized President Bush's recent remarks about Al-Qaeda.

All in all, it was the most contentious interview we've done since Bill Clinton's impeachment. It'll be interesting to see what, if any, of this is reported by The Times.

[BillF]

Can you repost the links, they did not seem to work...

I reposted the links at reply 4. They seem to work there.

[Coleus]

`

[L_Von_Mises]

Great job to you all!!!

Lunchtime was probably a perfect time as the staff was probably coming and going throughout the hour to eat. Plus the smokers probably have to stand right out front. Did you see many Times employees? If so did they have any comments? Or did they do the perp walk with the paper over their faces?

A cab driver honked his horn and flashed a thumbs up.

That always gets me how the DC cabbies are usually the most supportive. Maybe they're sick of getting stiffed by liberals.

[Angelwood]

Thanks for posting the after-action report and thanks to the folks from AIM for freeping the NYTimes with us today. They were handing out stickers "I Don't Believe The New York Times" and they gave us some to pass out also.

One fellow stopped by to talk to us about our reasons for protesting outside the New York Times. He took one of the stickers from me. Then he realized that we were FReepers, said as much and gave the sticker back. He did an about face and jaywalked across the street to one of the stores.

Another guy came out of the building, looked at our signs and said, "It's about time you guys protested here." He also walked across the street to pick up some lunch. On his way back he was "thumbs up" all the way across the street.

An older gentleman in a nice suit made his way through our midst. He asked us what union we were with -- much to our amusement.

I was pretty swamped at work today and threw together a few signs. I was running late (but at least I was able to show up) and I brought extra posterboard and markers so everyone could have their own sign. It was great to have 12 people (including the AIM cameraman who spent a lot of time taking pictures from across I Street) arrive for a lunchtime freep.

I had a sign with Registered's Jayson Blair/CNN picture; another sign with a picture of "ARTHUR, HOWELL and GERALD" coming out of or going into the NYT meeting on Wednesday with a further caption "NEW YORK TIMES LIAR'S CLUB"; I copied Matt Drudge's upside down NYTimes logo and announcement of the crisis meeting over top of the DRUDGE REPORT logo for another sign; NEW YORK TIMES - INTEGRITY QUAGMIRE; and the others attending made up their own signs, most of which had "lies" somewhere on them.

The rain held off until very late afternoon so we had good weather walking back and forth in front of the New York Times Washington Bureau.

As Kristinn mentioned, the NYTimes reporter was not really interviewing us after the first couple of questions. She was very aggressively debating and defending the actions of the NYT management and trying very hard to equate problems at other publications with those at her organization. Over and over she would come back to the same theme: The NYT has apologized, said they were sorry; what else would you have them do? What else indeed!

[Fred Mertz]

Thanks for the excellent report and the outstanding FReep. DC Chapter rocks!

[L_Von_Mises]

A Washington Post reporter arrived and Don spoke with him as Angelwood and I continued debating the NYT reporter. The interview was more like Crossfire. She kept defending her paper and its management while Angelwood and I kept hammering away.

That must be part of their interview training process. When interviewing, if you don't get the desired answers try to argue with them instead of just getting the facts and then report nothing. When they finaly find someone with the desired answer, that is reported as the unanimous concensus. It appears to me that the reporter was simply proving the point about their lack of honest reporting.