All The Propaganda That’s Fit To Print
Pajamas Media CEO Roger Simon underestimated how deep the institutional bias in the New York Times truly runs. That won't happen again.
It’s not often I underestimate the stuck-in-time, fuddy-duddy sixties traditionalism of the New York Times, but in this case I did.
Not in my wildest dreams was the paper capable of deliberately giving a fifty percent advertising discount to the George Soros-supported Moveon.org for a juvenile advertisement calling General Petraeus General Betray-us, of all things.
Despite what many had said, I had just assumed it was a business decision. The Times had ad space left over and, as everyone knows, they have economic problems. I went so far as to tell PJ Media’s Jim Hanson that he was over the top in his FEC suit. (I apologize, Jim.)
Quite clearly the Times’ favoritism to Moveon was deliberate.
In many ways this is worse than the Jayson Blair affair that so embarrassed the Times and caused a change in editorial administration. That was the result of inept fact checking. It could partially be excused as accidental, although the “accident” was repeated many times. The Moveon Affair goes much further, showing a functional and deliberate bias pervading the newspaper’s operations.
The question is how systemic is this – how high and deep this bias goes in the paper’s structure?. How long has the Times been showing this kind of favoritism and to whom? More specifically – who knew about the Moveon ad and when did they know it?
Sound familiar? Papers like the Times and the Washington Post make their reputations conducting such investigations. It will be interesting to see if they do one here. We will be waiting. At a moment in history when the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is visiting New York, it is no small matter that the city and the country’s most respected newspaper – or the one that for many years claimed to be – is guilty of unethical behavior that risks jeopardizing our nation’s security.
A few years ago, in a loose-lipped moment that now seems more like projection than anything else, Bill Keller, the editor of the New York Times, accused blogging of being a “one man circle jerk.” What greater “circle jerk” exists today than the New York Times?
UPDATE: Obviously some “A’s” are being “CYed”.
PJ Media CEO Roger L. Simon is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, novelist and blogger.
It’s not often I underestimate the stuck-in-time, fuddy-duddy sixties traditionalism of the New York Times, but in this case I did.—Roger S
Well better late than never I suppose. But might I propose that you still appear to persist in playing ‘nice’ with these creatures.
” The stuck-in-time, fuddy-duddy sixties traditionalism of the New York Times”. Why not rather the “24-7 agit-prop operation of a crypto-propaganda organ flying cravenly under the false colors of THE PAPER OF RECORD” ? You make their activites sound like the unfortunate but benign hangover from a tawdry but amusing intellectual / emotional binge, instead of the deeply seated perversion of the information medium that it truly is.
The NYT is not really different in kind from the ‘yellow press’ so epitomized by the quite unlamented Hearst Syndicate of Randolph’s years. It is just not quite so ‘honest’or ‘transparent’.
The Paper of Record.
My A**.
The solution is simple. Stop reading and quoting the thing. As they said back in the day—- “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem” .
Power To The People and all that.
I’m no fan of the NYT either, but this post is an incredibly naive take on the Moveon ad by someone who either has an axe to grind or is just inexperienced. Recommended reading: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/FineOnMedia/archives/2007/09/more_tediousnes.html
Roger,
I think it would make for one of the most amazing (yet 100% true) stories of journalism, if we could truly have an inside look at the decision-makers’ motives and then discussions about what the A1 headlines are each morning, the sub-headlines, and the stories at the NYT and WaPo. ONE THING is eminently clear……the goal is NOT to report news of the prior day. It is to determine which stories, or analyses, or even just survey results, can be highlighted above the fold to give the impression that Demacrats are good and thinking about our best interests, and Repubs and Bush are constantly getting into trouble, are disliked by the populace, and are constantly causing our country to be hated around the world. The deceit that must go on, behind the scenes, in the page A1 design room at NYT and WaPo, must be staggering. How many people control it? Do they keep the group small so as to minimize the chance of having a “David Horowitz”-type person who gets so sick of the deceit that he turns against them? I know there’s a story in there, but will we EVER get a peek inside? I certainly hope so. -SBourg
I concur with DougF.
Its odd that the NYT no longer recognizes “the times they are a changin.” It is no longer the time to be a paper but to be a business.
Will the “gray lady” see that. I kinda doubt it. It is fairly easy to change a business but it is hard to change an institution.
It will be a slow and painful death with lots of trials and tribulations until someone cries “Hold, enough.” That day is very far away.
Great post.
dougf has it absolutely — stop quoting the NYTimes. Better yet, stop advertising there and drop your subscription. Then tell any NYTimes advertisers with whom you currently do business that you’ll stop doing business with them if they continue to advertise there. The NYTimes is suffering from bad business decisions — circulation is down and they have had to stop charging for their Times Select service because it was so clearly not getting the response they hoped for. Now’s the time to step up the pressure on this dying beast. Grey Lady my foot — more like a beached whale. Time to put it out of its misery. F
I don’t get it. It’s their newspaper, don’t they have the freedom to run ads for whatever rate they choose? If the paper and the group running the ad agree on the price, what business is it of anyone else’s? Just because the Libs are always carrying on about “fairness”, in every situation where said fairness directly opposes freedom, doesn’t mean we have to do the same. So the Libs acted in their self-interest…isn’t that what the capitalistic system is all about?
If we play their game, we’re letting the left define a “new morality” for all of us.
If it were my newspaper, you can be danged sure MoveOn.org would be paying a lot more for an ad than the NRA or the Billy Graham Crusade.
SJ
More right wing whining, it’s just an ad, stupid, an ad. Quit whining about the NY Times, it’s still better than some right wing rag like the Post or Washington Times. After all, you warmongering pigs were 100% wrong about Iraq: you got a war and a tax cut and you’re still safe and comfy.
they were behind the war support too, Jonas, until it became unfashionable and we know how New Yorkers want to be fashionable
Agreed. We should stop sucking up to the Times, and boycott them in every sense of the word: cancel our subscriptions (if you haven’t already), stop reading them, and stop quoting them. Consign that contemptible rag to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.
You are adorably cute, Roger. Really: your credulity is just as sweet as it can be.
I had the New York Times sorted out with Walter Duranty.
Good morning, Sunshine.
Sheesh.
Smilin’ Jack I don’t get it. It’s their newspaper, don’t they have the freedom to run ads for whatever rate they choose?
It’s an isue if the skulduggery around the ad is an illegal campaign contribution under McCain Feingold. You know, the assnine law they assiduously promoted.
How do you go from believing there was no partisan intent to believing that there was, solely on the basis of the Times‘s own investigator’s report that there was not?
The “Public Editor” only said that an unapproved discount was given by an ad salesperson for placement on a specified day. (MoveOn paid the standard rate for an ad guaranteed to run within a 7-day window, but not the higher rate for an ad guaranteed to run on a specific day. They essentially paid for the ad and got to pick their day for free, which doesn’t seem like an outrageous deal, but is against Times policy.) He specifically said that the content of the ad was never an issue – that the editors had explicitly determined that it met their standards for “advocacy” ads, and that was not part of the decision on fee structures. The price break was, according to him, given by an ad sales agent who exceeded their authority.
Whether or not this story is true – and it seems likely enough – this is the story you explicitly reference as the reason for deciding the acceptance of the ad was politically motivated. But the Public Editor’s report contains no information to that effect at all. Its entire import is that the sale did violate written Times internal guidelines, but was the work of the agent acting independently. If you had previously believed the decision was not political, you cannot logically believe otherwise on the basis of this report, which offers no information to strengthen that conclusion, and which itself, in fact, concludes exactly the opposite.
The good news is Rupert Murdoch is after the New York Times, and Rupert never loses.
NYT has shot it’s self in the foot with the “Betray Us” ad. The independents and what few conservatives who do subscribe will pull their subscriptions.
Let’s stay active out here in the blogosphere and make them pay for it right now.
The national conciousness is being fed incorrect information, this is not news. The left would like to argue that this has been going on since Bush took office. The Right would like to argue that this has been going on since at least the 70′s . Over.
I have two words that explain everything the NYT does and it will save lots of time: Cultural Marxism.
I agree with the sentiments of a total boycott of the Times.
I vowed never to read Andrew Sullivan again and emailed him my intent back in the day when he started to go nuts and I’ve stuck with it skipping even the all too common commentaries on his latest irrationalities.
mcsmcs, your link produces a file not found error. Some defense.
Whoever at the NYT gave moveon.org the price cut was stupid. Billionaire George Soros funds moveon.org. He could well afford to pay the standard rate. The NYT bottom line really needs the cash. REALLY! I wonder if that particular stupid person will survive the next round of layoffs at the NYT.
This deliberate discount to MoveOn may be the wedge that divides the NYT from its advertiser base. Now that it’s clear that the NYT plays favorites based on politics, its advertisers should be outraged and demand discounts in order to maintain their ad buys. That would stick it to the NYT in their bottom (line).
I don’t really believe in boycotts, even of the NYT. The reason I stopped reading them is the knowledge that they will slant the facts in every story trying to game the ’08 elections. The value for the dollar is gone.
“After all, you warmongering pigs were 100% wrong about Iraq: you got a war and a tax cut and you’re still safe and comfy.”
_______________________________
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq weren’t enough.
I might feel safer and more comfy if we hit Iran next, but only if we obliterate the nuke plants, the Revolutionary Guards, and the basij. And Ahmadinejad. I’d like to see a JDAM with a Star of David on the side dropped square on his greasy head so that all they find of him is his nose and a couple of toenails.
Oink.
Tempest in a teacup. Nobody reads the NYT any more. Liberals tune in to NPR, which is far more influential.
You`re just now figuring this out???!!!
The fixation on the NYT and MoveOn by the right is sad. I actually read the ad. Sure it had a provocative title, but it pointed out much about Patraeus’ tenuous relationship with the truth. General Patraeus has no credibility to speak of and spent the better part of September being nothing more than a moutpiece for the failed policies coming out of Washington. I don’t care of he’s a 12 star general with medals of honor coming out of his rectum. It’s my right to criticize anyone I please, especially those who I believe are lying to me.
I suppose the NYT was merely trying to make amends for its unquestioning support of Judy Miller’s poorly sourced propaganda pieces in the run up to the war.
It’s okay to call vets like Kerry, Murtha, Cleland and Hagel traitors, but not the guy blatantly being used a political mouthpiece for the White House.
The Pentagon has been playing shell games with death and casualty numbers from the beginning of this debacle. Why should we believe them now?
GAO report, 9/4/07
NIE report, 8/23/07
Jones report, CSIS, 9/6/07
Independent AP investigation, 9/1/07
Independent L.A. Times investigation, 9/1/07
The Associated Press, “Violence Appears to Be Shifting from Baghdad.” 8/25/07
National Public Radio, “Statistics the Weapon of Choice in Surge Debate,” by Guy Raz. 9/6/07
Associated Press, “Key Figures About Iraq Since the War Began in 2003.” 9/5/07
“Experts Doubt Drop in Violence in Iraq,” by Karen DeYoung. 9/6/07
So, since Rudy got the exact same price, will he now be paying more? If not, why not.
Things like stock market prices, miniature golf scores, post-drugged semen levels, and chronic back pain and flatulence can fluctuate naturally and may regress towards the mean and uncalled for. The logical flaw is to make predictions that expect exceptional results to continue as if they were the average, a representativeness heuristic if I ever saw one! People are most likely to take action when dissent, like morning wood, is at its peak. Then after results become more normal or less turgid, they believe that their action was the cause of the change when in fact it was not causal, wherein cohesion between objects of similar silly appearance is assumed. While often very useful in everyday life, it can also result in neglect of relevant base rates and volumes, an inability to play funk, and other errors. Another snag you may encounter involves describing some occurrence in vivid detail, even if it is an exceptional occurrence, to convince someone that it is a problem, when, throughout my garbled history, it’s been commonly identified again and again that, if the nuns of the order of Sisters of Saint Joseph are to be believed, I am the one with the “problem”. Though misleading vividness does nothing to support an argument logically, it can have a very strong psychological effect because of a cognitive forceful brainwashing called the availability heuristic. Another area that needs to be dealt with in a timely and thorough manner is several references in my late Elementary/Junior-high phase of mutational development, otherwise known as the “Parade of horribles”, originally referred to as a literal parade of people wearing comic and grotesque costumes, rather like the Philadelphia Mummers Parade or my yearly family reunion. It was a traditional feature of Fourth-of-July parades in dismal parts of the U. S. in the nineteenth century without indoor plumbing. A 1926 newspaper article about July Fourth celebrations in the White Mountains of New Hampshire notes “Old-time celebrations are to be held tomorrow at Littleton, Lancaster, Colebrook, and Conway, with all the usual features of street parades of horribles and grotesques, brass balls bands, decorated automobiles and vehicles, dance exhibitions by fire departments, basket picnics in convenient small groves, finger-sniffing contest sponsored by the local Catholic diocese, and the regional dwarf tossing semi-finals…”. And to further enlighten and confuse, in Hesse’s “Steppenwolf”, the protagonist affirms that the men of the Dark Ages (see “Living at Virginia’s house”) did not suffer more than those of the Classical Antiquity (see “Attending Catholic school in the 60′s”), and vice-versa. It is rather those who live between two times, those who do not know what to follow, that suffer the most. In this token, a man from Virginia’s house attending Catholic school, or the opposite, would undergo a gulping sadness and agony.
I’m guessing there was a last minute renunciation of NYT’s steadfast stand against all things familial, as the thoughts of missing out on all that birthday cake and chocolate ice cream too was the drool inducing straw that broke the camel’s back, sunny happy-face painted visions of party favors, bobbing for apples, and Chuckles the clown getting a might too familiar with your package. Face it red-state pinheads: You just couldn’t resist the lure of ingesting too many conservative hot dogs and the aural flatulance assault and obligatory vomiting of seemingly thousands of over-indulged red-state brats screaming Hosannas of glee as they hop like retard bats in one of those inflatable trampoline jump thingys. Yeah, you talk a mean game but underneath, you’re just a weak-kneed, pencil-dick “catcher” for discarded GOP dulled talking points, and that you never miss a chance for a little one-on-one with Chuckles, not to mention your unnatural fascination and troubling affability with the leather saddle horn on the pony ride. I heard Cheney saying the other day on Russert’s wank-off that the old fishin’ hole hasn’t been the same since old you and Wade showed up. He was complaining how he developed this strange scent of latex in his nostrils, his breathing got labored, even after Tim unbuckled his tight pants, and I’m sure if asked, you’d claim you remembered little of what transpired. Wolf found you later that day face down in the salmon eggs. But I’m concerned about Wade, he seems to have turned over a new “leaf”, a peculiar nuance, if you will, that has rather disturbing undertones.
Since 9/11, when MoveOn.org deeply offended the supporters of General David Petraeus, the following soldiers have died in Iraq:
Staff Sgt. Terry D. Wagoner, 28, of Piedmont, S.C.
Spc. Todd A. Motley, 23, of Clare, Mich.
Spc. Jonathan Rivadeneira, 22, of Jackson Heights, N.Y.
Pvt. Christopher M. McCloud, 24, of Malakoff, Texas
Sgt. John Mele, 25, of Bunnell, Fla.
Pfc. Brandon T. Thorsen, 22, of Trenton, Fla.
Cpl. Terrence P. Allen, 21, of Pennsauken, N.J.
Staff Sgt. Michael L. Townes, 29, of Las Vegas
Spc. Joseph N. Landry III, 23, of Pensacola, Fla.
Spc. Nicholas P. Olson, 22, of Novato, Calif.
Spc. Donald E. Valentine III, 21, of Orange Park, Fla.
Spc. Aaron J. Walker, 23, of Harker Heights, Texas
Sgt. Edmund J. Jeffers, 23, of Daleville, Ala.
Pfc. Christian M. Neff, 19, of Lima, Ohio
Cpl. Graham M. McMahon, 22, of Corvallis, Ore.
Pfc. Luigi Marciante Jr., 25, of Elizabeth, N.J.
Capt. (Dr.) Roselle M. Hoffmaster, 32, of Cleveland, Ohio
Spc. John J. Young, 24, of Savannah, Ga.
and A Task Force Lightning Soldier died in a vehicle accident in Diyala province on Saturday 9/22.
(h/t Tbogg)
Ooops! Clicked on what I thought would be a site of some reason, but I see the tinfoil hatted leftist loons are all over it.
Roger, if “you” were unaware of the depth of the NYT’s depravity, then you may imagine my disillusion about your intellect. The question should be: how did I not know this years ago???
The NYT rah-rahed us into the iraq war.
How’s that working out for the US?
They are about as liberal as Limbaugh talks. (I say talks, because I don’t think he believes a word he says).
What’s your point, twisted perspective? Oh, you don’t have a point, just trying to reach emotions by creating a mood. Why don’t you actually try expressing ideas for a change?
Roger, we worked on that little Richard Pryor film in 81, I think it was. You were a well-paid, important screenwriter brought in to fix up the script. I had a lot of fun typing your script. Good to see you are anything but blind to bought-n-paid-for propaganda pushers. We could probably talk for a couple of hours on the state of the country and the NWO. I’ve been studying it for years. Kind of like studying the fibers on a noose. I would love to hear from you. —Pat Ross