Free Republic

NY Times: Fort Hood Massacre American's Fault The shootings at Fort Hood , however, pose a different problem for the president, by shining a spotlight on the tensions Muslims feel inside the United States. The score at Ft. Hood so far: Muslims 13, Non-muslims 0.

The historic campus of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., has offered instruction in journalism for well over a century — but probably never quite like this. On Friday, the twice-yearly Washington and Lee Journalism Ethics Institute will hear from its latest keynote speaker: Jayson Blair, the former New York Times reporter who triggered the greatest scandal in the newspaper's history. "Getting Jayson Blair obviously was a departure," says Edward Wasserman, the Knight professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee. Indeed. The keynote address is typically reserved for people like Lowell Bergman or Toni Locy, journalists who withstood...

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan has condemned The New York Times -- blasting the Gray Lady and its columnist Maureen Dowd for what he says are examples of unfair, prejudicial and just downright mean anti-Catholicism. Dolan used his blog last Thursday on the Archdiocese of New York's Web site to rail against the Times a day after the paper refused to print his critique as an op-ed piece. He singled out Dowd -- a poison-penned, Pulitzer winner and former Catholic-school girl -- for "the most combustible," "intemperate and scurrilous" "diatribe" she wrote on Oct. 25, which "rightly never would have...

Jayson Blair, who was at the center of a major journalism scandal as a New York Times reporter in 2003, will be the featured speaker at Washington and Lee University’s 48th Journalism Ethics Institute on Friday, Nov. 6. The title of Blair’s talk is “Lessons Learned.” The public is invited to the presentation at 5:30 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater, Elrod Commons. Blair resigned from the Times after an investigation found that he had plagiarized and fabricated major portions of stories that he had written during four years with the Times. Some of the stories that he covered in this manner...

The feeble pulse of moderation in the Republican Party is in danger of flat-lining in the Nov. 3 Congressional election in upstate New York. Luminaries like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich have taken opposing sides over whether the party dare tolerate the official Republican candidate in the 23rd district — Dede Scozzafava, a six-term assemblywoman whose record includes refreshing tinges of centrism. Ms. Scozzafava was nominated by local party leaders as eminently electable despite — or because of — her defense of women’s abortion rights and her tolerant views on same-sex marriage. She is already shunned by many more ideologically...

I STOOD in the bathroom of the Taliban compound and waited for my colleague to appear in the courtyard so we could make our escape. My heart pounded. A three-foot-tall swamp cooler — an antiquated version of an air-conditioner — roared in the yard a few feet in front of me. I feared that the guards who were holding us hostage might wake up and stop us. I feared even more that our captivity would drag on for years.

The New York Times Co. said Thursday that it lost $36 million, or 25 cents a share in the third quarter, compared to a loss of $106 million, or 74 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Earnings per share from continuing operations, excluding severance and special items, were 16 cents. Revenue fell 17% to $571 million from $687 million. Analysts polled by FactSet Research estimated, on average, a loss of 2 cents a share and sales of $576 million.

The New York Times reports today that the paper will cut 8 percent of its newsroom staff, or around 100 people by the end of 2009. Currently, the New York Times employs 1,250 staff members in the news department. The media company is planning to offer buyouts to both union and non-union staff and will need to implement layoffs if they can’t get enough people to participate in the buyout offer.

The New York Times (NYT.N) plans to cut 100 newsroom jobs by the end of the year through buyouts and might resort to layoffs as it reels from the advertising revenue drop that is imperiling U.S. newspapers. The news, delivered in a memo to employees by Times Executive Editor Bill Keller on Monday, comes after the newspaper's workers already took a 5 percent pay cut for most of this year and a similar program last year. "When we took our 5 percent pay cuts, it was in the hope that this would fend off the need for more staff cuts...

Some things to ponder in the wake of today's news that the New York Times Co. won't be selling the Boston Globe after all (Herald story here, Globe story here, entire memo to follow): 1. Given the speed with which the Times Co. decided to reject the bids assembled by Steve Taylor and Platinum, it seems--at least from the outside--like not a lot of deliberation was required. When did the Times Co. make up its mind not to sell? And what was the determing factor? 2. The elimination of lifetime job guarantees earlier this year paved the way for some...

The New York Times can be relied upon to tell us where liberals want to take the country—to tell us what they really want. In an editorial last Thursday, the Times said: “[I]n a rational system of medical care, there would be virtually no restrictions on financing abortions. But abortion is not a rational issue.”Not rational? Medical science has known since 1857 that human life begins at conception. It was the medical profession—not the churches—that vigorously lobbied for protective laws against abortion in the 1850s and 1860s. Those laws upheld the highest form of rationality and morality. Those protective laws...

<p>Those who read the New York Times's coverage of the unsuccessful results of Barack and Michelle Obama's attempt to seal the 2016 Summer Olympics bid for Chicago on Friday afternoon ('For Obama, an Unsuccessful Campaign") might want to read it again.</p>

Clark Hoyt, the NY Times Public Editor, covers its lack of reporting of the O’Keefe/Giles Acorn exposé and blames it on being “slow off the mark.” Hoyt was kept on for a year after his two year term expired earlier this year, no doubt by endearing himself to editorial management with soft criticism. He didn't fail them today. I wrote about Hoyt last year and called him a joke. In the column I pointed out the new bias of the Times is that of burying stories that don’t support the Democrat’s game plan. Read it, it covers some points others...

From: NEWSPAPER GUILD MAILING Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:03:54 -0400 Subject: Guild UNION TIMES: 'Cost-Saving' Committee Meets To: [New York Times guild members] September 24, 2009 "Cost-Saving" Committee Meets Times Agrees to Offer Voluntary Buyouts Pay Cut to be Restored in January Representatives of the Guild and Times management met earlier this week to discuss the possibility of offering a Voluntary Buyout and to identify cost-saving opportunities that still may exist at the newspaper. The meeting was part of a process that was agreed to in discussions between the union and company management last spring regarding the temporary 5...

This would be the perfect time to do one of those "caught red handed" commercials, Obama White House changes their story on New York Governor David Paterson, all in the same day...

I suppose it's only fair. Judging by the Times' plunging stock value and rapidly shrinking readership, fans of conservative talk radio are not fans of the paper. But this is a little over-the-top, even for this discredited fishwrap. Call It Ludacris: The Kinship Between Talk Radio and Rap "Hour after hour, rant after rant, it is a feast of words and feverish emotion, interrupted only by regular commercials and the occasional call from the awe-struck fan. I’d heard these voices before, but only in sound bites. When you don’t own a car and don’t tune in at home, you probably...

Whom do Democrats trust more for news: Fox News or the New York Times? With all the vitriol directed against Fox News, one would think that it is a no brainer. But a new Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll shows that it is Fox News. While 43 percent of Democrats have a positive view of Fox News, 39 percent of Democrats feel the same way about the New York Times. Of course among Republicans or Independents it isn't even a close contest. 72 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of Fox News compared to...

The news media's credibility is sagging along with its revenue. Nearly two-thirds of Americans think the news stories they read, hear and watch are frequently inaccurate, according to a poll released Sunday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. That marks the highest level of skepticism recorded since 1985, when this study of public perceptions of the media was first done. The poll didn't distinguish between Internet bloggers and reporters employed by newspapers and broadcasters, leaving the definition of "news media" up to each individual who was questioned. The survey polled 1,506 adults on the phone...

Political commentator, author and writer for The Atlantic magazine Andrew M. Sullivan won't have to face charges stemming from a recent pot bust at the Cape Cod National Seashore - but a federal judge isn't happy about it. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings says in his decision that the case is an example of how sometimes "small cases raise issues of fundamental importance in our system of justice." While marijuana possession may have been decriminalized, Sullivan, who owns a home in Provincetown, made the mistake of being caught by a park ranger with a controlled substance on National Park...

A New York Times reporter taken hostage by militants was rescued from a hide-out in northern Afghanistan early Wednesday in a daring raid that left his translator, a British soldier and civilians dead. Journalist Stephen Farrell was kidnapped Saturday while interviewing villagers in the northern province of Kunduz about NATO air strikes that reportedly left as many as 90 people dead. Farrell's interpreter, one of the British commandos sent to rescue them and several others died when a firefight broke out during the raid. According to the Times, Farrell called an editor at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and declared, "I'm out!...

According to reports from Afghanistan, New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell and his driver/interpreter have been kidnapped while attempting to cover the story of the NATO airstrike on the two Taliban-hijacked tankers in Kunduz, Afghanistan. The local Afghan press is reporting on Farrell's kidnapping; however, the international press and the wires services have been silent on this issue. Multiple sources in Afghanistan tell me that The New York Times is attempting to suppress the reporting on Farrell's kidnapping. Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/2009/09/nyt_reporter_kidnapped_in_kund.php#ixzz0QO1gsSUt

Reporter Jim Rutenberg wrote an unfavorable profile of former NY Lt Governor Betsy McCaughey and her efforts to educate the public about the dangers of Obamacare in today's NY Times: Her work has, however, proved to be a boon to opponents of Mr. Obama’s health care plans, if occasionally judged as over the line even by some of them. She incorrectly stated in July that a Democratic bill in the House would “absolutely require” counseling sessions for Medicare recipients “that will tell them how to end their life sooner,” drawing a “Pants on Fire” rating from the PolitiFact fact-checking Web...

Health care reform may be defeated this year in part because so many Americans believe the government can’t do anything right and fear that a doctor will come to resemble an I.R.S. agent with a scalpel. Yet the part of America’s health care system that consumers like best is the government-run part. Fifty-six to 60 percent of people in government-run Medicare rate it a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale. In contrast, only 40 percent of those enrolled in private insurance rank their plans that high. Multiple surveys back that up. For example, 68 percent of those in Medicare...

REMEMBER “peak oil”? It’s the theory that geological scarcity will at some point make it impossible for global petroleum production to avoid falling, heralding the end of the oil age and, potentially, economic catastrophe. Well, just when we thought that the collapse in oil prices since last summer had put an end to such talk, along comes Fatih Birol, the top economist at the International Energy Agency, to insist that we’ll reach the peak moment in 10 years, a decade sooner than most previous predictions (although a few ardent pessimists believe the moment of no return has already come and...

Atrazine Levels across the Nation

In a Friday story headlined "Britons Fault Health Service, Until Someone Else Does," Times London correspondent Sarah Lyall singled out Republican criticism of British health care, citing tiny protests, larger Twitter campaigns, and exercised editorials in The Economist magazine about "irresponsible distortions" by conservatives in America. While Britons love to complain about waiting lists, disparities in treatment, "infection-breeding hospitals" and "top-heavy bureaucracy," they are seemingly unanimous in opposition to Obama critics: They are furious, for example, that the health service is being held up as an example of the failures of socialized medicine by Americans opposed to President Obama’s health...

The New York Times reveals the awful truth about the secret air war against high value al Qaeda targets in Pakistan -- the drones are being armed by evil government contractors. And while the paper felt comfortable suppressing any news of the capture and confinement of one of its own reporters earlier this year, it shows no compunction in revealing the secret location of the base from which these drones are launched: The C.I.A. has for several years operated Predator drones out of a remote base in Shamsi, Pakistan, but has secretly added a second site at an air base...

Why would the New York Times divulge information that could prove harmful to the national security of the United States? Is it so consumed is it by hatred of anything outside their left wing agenda that the paper actually wants America to lose the war on terror. One case in point was an article the Times published on June 30, 2008, Amid U.S. Policy Disputes, Qaeda Grows in Pakistan, which quoted from a "highly-classified Pentagon order" describing internal disputes at the Pentagon over plans to capture Osama Bin Laden and defeat al Qaeda. In June 2006, both The New York...

See article for story...Forbes did a story yesterday regarding this story and here is a quote: "Just in time for back to school, mall mainstay J.C. Penney got interesting. Thanks to a nasty New York Times review of its new store across from competitor Macy's ( M - news - people ) in New York's Herald Square, fans from Savanna to San Francisco as well as bloggers and journalists kept J.C. Penney ( JCP - news - people ) in print for a week solid. They're irate with writer Cintra Wilson and her comments regarding the "obese mannequins" and "Middle...

Jayson Blair knows his new profession — life coach — smacks some people in the face like a bad punchline. "People say, 'Wait a minute. You're a life coach?' That makes no sense,'" says Blair, the ex-journalist best known for foisting plagiarism and fabrications into the pages of The New York Times. "Then they think about my life experiences and what I've been through and they say 'Wait a minute. It does make sense.'" Blair, 33, resigned from the Times in 2003, leaving a journalistic scandal in his wake. The resulting furor led the paper's top two newsroom executives to...

McCarthy on Pelosi, the NY Times and the German National Socialists August 14, 2009 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Are there any hate groups on the left? There are, right? Are they ever the subject of network news reports? Has Brian "The Repeater" Ross ever gone out there and done a report on left-wing hate groups? No! In fact, when we hear about left-wing hate groups and their work, we're supposed to marvel at the art. It may be offensive but we're supposed to marvel at the art. Southern Poverty Law Center, do you know how much these people are worth?...

The New York Times public editor conducted a self examination after seven errors appeared in a single article recently. From the New York Times THE TIMES published an especially embarrassing correction on July 22, fixing seven errors in a single article — an appraisal of Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchorman famed for his meticulous reporting. The newspaper had wrong dates for historic events; gave incorrect information about Cronkite’s work, his colleagues and his program’s ratings; misstated the name of a news agency, and misspelled the name of a satellite. “Wow,” said Arthur Cooper, a reader from Manhattan. “How did this...

Empty turtle shells, decaying skunk carcasses and a set of deer antlers lay strewn about an empty campsite in California's Sierra National Forest. The butchered animals, as well as several five-pound propane canisters, camp stoves and heaps of trash, were all that remained of the 69 marijuana plantations recently uncovered in Fresno County as part of operation "Save our Sierras." The massive operation that began in February has already seized about 318,000 marijuana plants worth an estimated $1.1 billion, officials announced last week. In addition to 82 arrests, the multi-jurisdictional federal, state and local operation netted 42 pounds of processed...

New York Times Buries Bad Poll for Obama Thursday's edition of The New York Times goes out of its way to bury poll results that reflect a growing public backlash against President Obama's healthcare proposals. Newspapers usually feature their poll results on the front page. But the newspaper's editors apparently didn't want the results of the New York Times/CBS poll to draw too much attention. A Page One headline refers to "growing unease" about healthcare, but the story does not provide the actual figures until much later. In fact, readers won't find the poll results until the bottom third of...

AS Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke has committed serious sins of commission and omission — and for those many sins, he does not deserve reappointment. Let me begin with the former. It is standard practice for a central bank like the Federal Reserve to ease monetary policy to combat a recession, and then to tighten it as recovery gets under way. Mr. Bernanke so far has only had to do the first half, and has conducted a policy of extreme ease. The Fed’s Open Market Committee cut the federal funds rate in October to 1 percent from 1.5 percent, and...

A lawyer for the The New York Times has sent a cease and desist letter to the Republican Governors Association that takes issue with the layout, name and typefaces of a satirical RGA website, which the Times says is "clearly intended to be nearly identical to NYTimes.com." The letter claims the site's design is an infringement of the Times' rights under the Copyright Act of 1976 and that it violates the Lanham Act by falsely suggesting that the Times sponsored or is associated with the RGA's site. The RGA's Corzine Times site, which targets Democratic New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine,...

Revenue at The New York Times Co. fell 21 percent in the second quarter, hit by lower demand for print and Internet advertising at operations that include the Boston Globe. Total revenue at the Times (NYSE: NYT) was $584.5 million in the second quarter, compared with $741.9 million in the year-earlier period. Total revenue at the New England Media Group, which includes Globe operations, was off 19 percent in the second quarter. Advertising revenue during those three months fell 31 percent to $58.7 million at the group. The publishing company said operating profit in the quarter fell 42 percent to...

And a delicious dish it is. A stew of race, the New York Times, media hypocrisy and double-standards. All inadvertently stirred by the lovely and talented Times columnist, the white female Maureen Dowd. You know all those fevered editorials they churn out over there at the New York Times editorial board? Like, for instance, the hot fury published on June 30 wonderfully titled "Firefighters and Race." In this jewel the Times editorial board makes its displeasure plain in the very first sentence, huffing that the Supreme Court decision in favor of the New Haven firemen has "dealt a blow to...

Palin Hairdresser: NYT Was Lying About "Hair Thinning" Claim By Tim Lindell Chalk this up as Stupid Palin Meme of the Week: In a July 12th hit piece published on the front page of the New York Times, reporters Jim Rutenberg and Serge Kovaleski (assisted by Kim Severson and William Yardley in Alaska) made the following claim: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Friends worried that she appeared anxious and underweight. Her hair had thinned to the point where she needed emergency help from her hairdresser and close friend, Jessica Steele. “Honestly, I think all of it just broke her heart,” Ms. Steele said in...

Reported during Your World that Steven Rattner would step down and be replaced by a member of the Auto Task Force. No print story currently available at site.

The New York Times Company has announced that it has sold Classical 96.3 WQXR New York for $45 Million as part of a three way deal with Univision and WNYC. The way the deal is structured, Univision will pay $33.5 Million for the 96.3 frequency while WNYC pays $11.5 Million for the 105.9 frequency from Univision and the WQXR intellectual property. Spanish Tropical “La Kalle” WCAA will shift to the stronger 96.3 allocation. 96.3 WQXR is a Class B broadcasting with 6kw at 1362′, while 105.9 is a Class B1 with 610 watts at 1365 feet. The Non-Commercial WNYC operates...

The visit last month was particularly significant as it was his first trip since the New York Times and IHT websites were merged to a single global product. The tie-up in March served as a precursor to a key decision in August on how best to charge for access to the group's websites, reversing an earlier decision not to, and becoming the first major non-financial newspaper group to take the step. The move comes as the advertising downturn proves particularly challenging for the listed group, which has seen its market value fall 65pc to $707m (£438m) in the past year....

The New York Times is testing a price point of $5 a month for access to nytimes.com, with a 50 percent discount for print subscribers. The Times e-mailed a survey to print subscribers Thursday afternoon inviting their reaction to that pricing plan and asking a range of questions about online pricing. NYT survey A portion of the Times' survey on charging for access to its Web site. (Click image for larger version.) New York Times Co. spokeswoman Catherine Mathis confirmed in a telephone interview that the Times had sent the survey, but said no timetable has been set for a...

Just how long was the New York Times sitting on this article? Click here to read the whole thing The Corner: During the campaign, I wrote a piece called “Why Won’t Obama Talk About Columbia? — The years he won’t discuss may explain the Ayers tie he keeps lying about.” So now, nearly six months into the Obama presidency, the mainstream media has finally done a bit of the candidate background reporting it declined to do during the campaign — other than in Wasilla — and whaddya know? The New York Times unearthed a 1983 article called, “Breaking the War...

Eight days before the election, I spent 20 minutes alone with Sarah Palin on her campaign bus between rallies in Leesburg, Va., and Fredericksburg, George Washington's childhood home. Our encounter brought to mind a crusty Texas editor's description of politicians who didn't know what they didn't know: Delusions of adequacy. By then, John McCain's handlers were so spooked by the disastrous Katie Couric interview they'd hermetically sealed his running mate from media interrogators. But Tucker Eskew, the savvy Republican operative running her road show, graciously offered some "face time" - if our conversation was off the record. Reluctantly, I took...

O.K., Thursday’s jobs report settles it. We’re going to need a bigger stimulus. But does the president know that? Let’s do the math. Since the recession began, the U.S. economy has lost 6 ½ million jobs — and as that grim employment report confirmed, it’s continuing to lose jobs at a rapid pace. Once you take into account the 100,000-plus new jobs that we need each month just to keep up with a growing population, we’re about 8 ½ million jobs in the hole. And the deeper the hole gets, the harder it will be to dig ourselves out. The...

The New York Times Company hopes to sell a newspaper in central Massachusetts along with The Boston Globe and wants the buyer of the papers to take on $59 million in pension liabilities. It intends to make a deal quite quickly, according to a letter sent to potential bidders. The confidential letter from the company’s investment bankers at Goldman Sachs, which was obtained by a Times reporter, says the company will focus on getting the highest price and “on the certainty and speed with which bidders can sign a definitive agreement and complete an acquisition.” It sets a July 8...

If you are reading this, I am doing my job. Roughly speaking, that is the compact that has underpinned the ties that bind those who write the news to those who read it. But as the world hurtles into a digital era, other questions intrude: if you are reading this on paper printed with ink, are we both dinosaurs; and, if you are (still) reading this on your laptop, or P.D.A., or mobile phone, who is paying for it? The questions have sharpened in recent days, honed by a blizzard of Twitter and Facebook messages and images on YouTube and...

There is that old saying, "There are three kinds of lies; Lies, Dammed Lies and Statistics. Having spent over 30 years in marketing, I assure you that numbers can be made to prove anything. The unscrupulous will show twist numbers to prove a point without clearly noting how they were derived. Neither the NY Times nor CBS has not been accused of having scruples, at least not since Uncle Walter retired. Late last week, a highly promoted NY Times/CBS poll reported that almost 3/4 of Americans were solidly behind the Obama heath plan. When you examine the way the poll...

Robinson objects to criticisms surrounding the company's handling of the much-publicized labor negotiations with the Times' Boston Globe unit. She is weary of the endless speculation that the Times has already decided to launch a pay model for some or all of its Internet properties, noting that the company expects to make an announcement this fall. And no, no, no -- the Times is not about to be acquired by Mexican billionaire and prominent Times stockholder Carlos Slim, Hollywood mogul David Geffen or anybody else, she says. Robinson is particularly tired of hearing the rumors that the company will be...