May 20, 2009

All the News That’s Fit To Suppress

Conflict of interest stories make great front-page headlines – except when the newspaper that revels in breaking them is itself in the middle of an ethical morass. Take The New York Times.

Jennifer 8. Lee, one of the muckraking newspaper’s reporters, recently boasted on Twitter that the Paper of Record has now “sold $2 million worth of Obama merchandise (book, commemorative editions, etc.).” The president, she noted chirpily, “is good for the bottom line.” This lucrative media-government partnership is on proud display at the Times’ online Barack Obama store, where readers can buy mugs, books and framed photos of the newspaper’s political boosterism.

A press plate of the Times’ Obama inauguration front page goes for $149. A “set of Obama victory coffee mugs” sells for $24.95. And for only $1,129, you can own a signed and framed messianic photo of Obama taken by Times photographer Damon Winter – and neutrally titled “Shining Moment,” with the candidate in artsy silhouette as a sunburst illuminates the scenery.

It’s a short leap from there to Times reporter Jeff Zeleny, who infamously asked the president in a prime-time press briefing a few weeks ago what had “enchanted” him the most about being in the White House. You could almost see the sunbursts in Zeleny’s pupils as he tossed the drool-covered softball to Dear Leader.

I’ve often said that it’s the journalistic sins of omission that are more damning than the industry’s sins of commission. Right on cue, the Times acknowledged this weekend that it had spiked a story on possible illegal coordination between left-wing activist groups ACORN and Project Vote and the Obama campaign just before Election Day. The charges involved Team Obama sharing top campaign donor lists with ACORN’s supposedly nonpartisan canvassing arm, Project Vote (the same group Obama worked for as a Chicago community organizer).

New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt tried to spin it as a “tip that didn’t pan out.” He airily dismissed the charges by ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief as “nonsense” and quoted Times national editor Suzanne Daley, who shrugged, “You have to cut bait after a while.” It was an all too convenient judgment that just happened to be made as Election Day loomed. (Contrast this with the editorial doggedness of the Times’ editors in pursuing and publishing the Star Magazine-quality insinuations that GOP presidential candidate John McCain had carried on an affair with Washington lobbyist Vicki Iseman.)

Hoyt attempted to paint MonCrief as an unreliable source. But Times reporter Stephanie Strom had relied on her for months to break a series of ACORN corruption stories. Moreover, MonCrief’s allegations fit the shady money-shuffling pattern among ACORN and its affiliates to a T. Strom had reported on ACORN’s own internal review of shady money transfers among its web of affiliates conducted by lawyer Elizabeth Kingsley.

The Kingsley review of the incestuous relationship between ACORN and Project Vote found, in the Times’ own words, that it was “impossible to document that Project Vote’s money had been used in a strictly nonpartisan manner” and “raised concerns not only about a lack of documentation to demonstrate that no charitable money was used for political activities but also about which organization controlled strategic decisions.” ACORN, joked independent investigative journalist Matthew Vadum, “moves money around its network with a boldness and agility that Pablo Escobar would have admired.”

MonCrief says she was prepared to hand over documentation on the Obama/Project Vote donor-sharing arrangement to Strom before the Times’ editors decided to cut bait. The paper’s Election Eve incuriosity about potential tax and campaign finance violations by Team Obama belies its repeated denials of bias and conflict. At a self-aggrandizing media conference in 2007, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller declared:

“We are agnostic as to where a story may lead; we do not go into a story with an agenda or a preconceived notion. We do not manipulate or hide facts to advance an agenda. We strive to preserve our independence from political and economic interests… We do not work in the service of a party, or an industry, or even a country. When there are competing views of a situation, we aim to reflect them as clearly and fairly as we can.”

Rhetoric, meet reality.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.