Other Newspapers Begin to Focus NY Times Political Bias
Other newspapers are focusing on the obvious political bias of the management of The New York Times, and that focus isn't just about selling newspapers or fanning the flames of controversy. As The New York Post reports, the decision to reverse the spiking of two sports columns that differ with Times editorial policy on Augusta National has accentuated the controversy surrounding the situation.
The real problem at The Times is not the fact that they are relentlessly hectoring the members of Augusta National Golf Club, or that they are repressing dissenting views held by some of their own senior reporters and columnists. Rather, it's the fact that the editorial policy has an excessive impact on story selection and perspective.
An example from Saturday's New York Times is the story Some Tentative First Steps Toward Universal Health Care, a news article that discusses insurer proposals around the country that would further shift the burden of paying for health care to the states and the federal government. The reporter found many proposals that, taken together, would bring the country much closer to single-payer health care systems. Yet, all of these are proposals, and this is not reflected in the headline.
Beyond that, the article contains no alternative viewpoints. Couldn't the reporter have found someone in a public policy or insurance administrative position who could have pointed out holes in even one of these proposals? What about pointing out the issues associated with treatment of people who are in this country illegally, and the legions of Americans who want the federal government to stop these abuses?
The problem that The New York Times is experiencing is part and parcel of its editors' disingenuousness. The motto shouldn't be All the News That's Fit to Print-- it should be All the Left Wing Opinions that Are Fit To Print, or All the News That Fits Our Agenda.