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To: WorkingClassFilth
From the 2nd link in my above post:

...You see, I was around in the early 1980s, when Janet Cooke embarrassed The Washington Post with her made-up account of an 8-year-old heroin addict. Then, as now, the after-the-fact questioning proceeded along two main tracks: 1) How could the reporter have deceived so many smart people for so long? 2) What impact will the deception have on the prospects of other young black journalists?

One interesting point is the difference in the answers, then and now. In the days after Cooke had to give up her 1981 Pulitzer Prize, I found myself reassuring young black journalists and journalism students that they needn't worry about the Cooke affair. Janet, I told them,was one of a kind. She was a con artist who lied to advance her career, I said. It wasn't about race. ...

5 posted on 05/16/2003 9:08:10 PM PDT by summer
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To: summer
Thanks for the prompt reply and factual information!

In addition to all of the troubles the NYT is having recently, they have, for some time, been running sufficient errors and bias to the point where their newsroom editor last summer instituted new policies aimed at restoring their flagging reputation for accuracy by insisting on double checking and vetting all source facts and quotes - worked well too. Anti-NYT websites dissect them daily and correct their errors. Episodes of bias are manifold and concrete to all but the most ardent NYT lackeys.

The broad middle of America is becoming much more than casually aware of the scope of bias and disinformation in our media. I suspect that the same kind of reactionary complex the Leftist media fostered among the populace to deride and dismiss politicians as corrupt in the wake of Nixon is finally taking root against them as well. Unfortunately, the broad-brush work they did in creating an apathetic votership went against them in the Krinton years as journalists and the White House rodents constantly bemoaned the popular notion that Krinton was a low-life opportunist. I can recall many articles that bristled at the shallow branding and pseudo-sophistication of a scandal-jaded populace that saw all politicians, including Krinton, as criminals and opportunists; like they hadn't been sold that formula for 25 years? The entire show 'West Wing' was created as a curative for that very problem - the desperate need to restore Leftists in the eyes of the common folk.

Conservatives, of course, have been tearing our hair out over media bias for years. This is our day in the sun and a chance to drive home some points with the folks of America - if - we don't misplay our cards. I don't buy Mr. Buckley's blithe dismissal of this episode and I wouldn't invest in NYT stock hoping for a bounce when this one blows over. I would, however, seek to find ways to inflict maximum damage on the Left through these scandals without creating spillage onto Conservative outlets.
17 posted on 05/16/2003 9:41:03 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Defund NPR, PBS and the LSC.)
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