THE FLAUNTING OF MEDIA BIAS

 

 

 

By Cliff Kincaid
August 22, 2004
NewsWithViews.com

This critical election year is different than most. Usually, news organizations try to maintain they're fair and objective. But the public editor of the New York Times has written a column saying that it's absolutely true that the Times is a liberal paper on such issues as gay rights, gun control, abortion and environmental issues. He says, "�if you think The Times plays it down the middle on any of them, you've been reading the paper with your eyes closed."

Daniel Okrent was given that position of public editor, or ombudsman, in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal, when a young black reporter hired and promoted under affirmative action was eventually fired for massive plagiarism and fakery. Okrent is supposed to keep an eye on the paper and correct its errors. He wrote the column on liberal media bias at the Times and promptly left for a 4-week vacation. Some wonder if he'll have his job when he gets back.

Fox News has been under fire by far left critics because it uses a slogan, "Fair and balanced." Moveon.org, a group funded by drug legalizer George Soros, actually petitioned a government agency, the Federal Trade Commission, to force Fox to quit using that slogan. The use of a government agency to silence a cable news network is an exercise in attempted censorship. But way before Fox even existed, the Times was masquerading under the banner, "All the news that's fit to print." The Okrent column shows that is a false claim. But Moveon.org hasn't called for a government crackdown on that.

The liberal label is no shock, since the Times has long been known as a Democratic Party paper that backs the Democratic candidate in presidential elections. But it is a breakthrough that a Times ombudsman has written about it openly. J. Edward Pawlick, author of a book on the Times empire, "Libel by the New York Times," says that public editor Okrent should also take a look at a Times property, the Boston Globe. Pawlick says the Globe played a role in the decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court to legalize homosexual marriage. A court member, Margaret Marshall, is married to former Times columnist Anthony Lewis.

Pawlick says that, although publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. was mentioned in the Okrent story, the ombudsman treads lightly when talking about him. Pawlick says evidence shows that Sulzberger is obsessed with homosexuality.

The obsession was confirmed when Richard Berke, the paper's National Political Correspondent and a long-time associate of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, spoke at the 10th anniversary reception for the group in Washington, D.C. on April 12, 2000 at the National Press Club. He said there had been "a dramatic shift" at the paper in favor of homosexuality. He explained, "I remember coming and wondering if there were any gay reporters there or whatever. Now it's like, there are times when you look at the front-page meeting and � literally three-quarters of the people deciding what's on the front page are not-so-closeted homosexuals." This is more than cheerleading. It looks like the Times has become a house organ of the gay rights movement.

� 2004 Cliff Kincaid - All Rights Reserved