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The New York Times has an ethical bankruptcy on its hands
Remember this article from the New York Times?
Primary Choices: John McCain – The senator from Arizona is the best choice for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
via NY Times.
Yesterday, the Times ran a story questioning McCain’s ethics because of some ties to an attractive, blonde lobbyist. This was followed by a slew of news organizations questioning the Times’ decision to run the story.
The New York Times endorsed McCain for the Republican nomination on Jan. 25, when it was clearly working on this story and had the basic facts in hand.
via Huffington Post.
What makes it even more ethically disgusting for the paper is the fact that this information has been known for eight years and it would likely have changed the Republican primary. As the Post posits with such yellow journalistic flair, one can no longer question an agenda behind this horribly biased news organization.
While we will surely see many “right-wing” pundits call into light the idea of liberal media, the greater concern is with the behavior itself and not with the political leanings of a newspaper. The freedom of the press is a wonderful thing in this country, and it is a sad, sad day when that freedom gets abused by a select few who wield the power of the pen.
Similar behavior from a business or politician would lead to journalistic and public outcry for someone to be fired, which is often more of a P.T. Barnum showcase than a real need for someone’s career to be destroyed. People make mistakes and so do newspapers and the people who work there. But in light of the treatment others have received it’s in the best interest of The New York Times to consider some personnel changes as a business in order to restore its editorial integrity.
UPDATE
Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet, when contacted by Politico, wrote in an e-mail: “I am going to pass for now. The story speaks for itself.â€
Reporter David Kirkpatrick echoed a similar line when reached by phone: “I think the story speaks for itself. This one I can’t help you with.â€
Oh how right they are. The story does speak for itself.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Russ on February 21, 2008 at 10:34 am, and is filed under Citizen Journalism, Newspaper. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 3 years ago
Good point. But remember, the Right is just as guilty as the Left, in terms of media bias. e.g. Fox news verses CNN. I think another thing to consider are the owners of these networks. We’d be foolish to believe they weren’t getting their agenda across.
about 3 years ago
Yeah, I don’t even watch Fox because of how over-the-top they are on their leanings.
The right is definitely guilty of this. I just never thought it would be this bad.
Last, I try to tell myself never to forget that these people are running a business to make money.
about 3 years ago
I am always a little baffled about the claim of FOX’s bias. They have some prominent conservatives – O’Reilly, Hannity, Hume. They also have liberals – Combs, Van Susteren and Rivera. Additionally, with the exception of Brit Hume’s program, they usually have an equal number of conservatives and liberals. Watch most programs on the other networks you will have 1 conservative and three liberals. Additionally, at least most of the conservatives will publicly acknowledge their conservative bias. Most of the mainstream press – which votes 95% democratic – refuses to acknowledge their bias.
I enjoy listening to a wide variety of new sources, liberal to conservative. However, I have little respect for those who will not acknowledge their biases. Do you think the New York Times would ever admit that it has a liberal bias? What would truly be frightening if such groups actually believe that they neutral.