New New York Times motto: Better late than never

For generations, the New York Times motto was “All the news that’s fit to print.” Things have changed. The Times official ombudsman commented on the paper’s cluelessness on the ACORN scandal and other recent stories.

The New York Times has a new motto <i>and</i> a new mascot
The New York Times has a new motto and a new mascot

For generations, the New York Times motto was “All the news that’s fit to print.” Things have changed.

The Times official ombudsman waddled in over the weekend (when most people don’t pay much attention to news) to comment on the paper’s cluelessness on the ACORN scandal and other recent stories thoroughly covered by Fox News and talk radio, but ignored the The Gray Lady.

In a mea culpa entitled, “Tuning In Too Late,” Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt admits, “The Times stood still.” What he should’ve said was that the paper stood still in its best ostrich imitation. Either that or its head was stuck deep where the sun never shines. And it wasn’t the first time.

Hoyt understatedly noted of the Times:

Its slow reflexes — closely following its slow response to a controversy that forced the resignation of Van Jones, a White House adviser — suggested that it has trouble dealing with stories arising from the polemical world of talk radio, cable television and partisan blogs… a newspaper like The Times needs to be alert to them or wind up looking clueless or, worse, partisan itself.

Ya think, Hoyt? The self-flagellation continued:

Some editors told me they were not immediately aware of the Acorn videos on Fox, YouTube and a new conservative Web site called BigGovernment.com. When the Senate voted to cut off all federal funds to Acorn, there was not a word in the newspaper or on its Web site. When the New York City Council froze all its funding for Acorn and the Brooklyn district attorney opened a criminal investigation, there was still nothing.

After acknowledging the obvious—that the lamestream media is predictably selective in what it considers “news that’s fit to print”—Hoyt questions the ethics of those who revealed the scandal:

Some conservatives think O’Keefe and Giles were doing work that should have been done by the mainstream media. But most news organizations consider such tactics unethical — The Times specifically prohibits reporters from misrepresenting themselves or making secret recordings.

Remember, this is the same paper that has no problem revealing classified leaks from anonymous sources or publishing previously secret details of counterterrorism programs against the requests of government officials. In the looking-glass world of the Times, endangering national security is perfectly ethical if you believe the public has some fuzzy “right to know.” What’s unethical is blowing the whistle on a taxpayer-funded organization that encourages fraud and abets child prostitution. Evidently “most news organizations” think the pubic has no right to know how its money is being wasted if it takes a hidden camera to find out.

But don’t assume which way the Times’ sympathies lie:

Despite what the critics think, [Jill] Abramson, [managing editor for news], said the problem was not liberal bias.

Don’t know about you, but we certainly feel reassured.

Source: New York Times

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