Clay Waters

Clay Waters is director of Times Watch, a division of the Media Research Center (MRC) that tracks the liberal bias of the New York Times. You can follow Times Watch on Twitter and Facebook.

Author Articles

Obligatory Sarah Palin Hit Piece Shrugworthy

Times goes drilling for scandal in Sarah Palin's Alaskan background, comes up empty.

Scary Sarah Palin & "Fiscal Conservative" Obama

Plus Clueless Thomas Friedman Praises Communist China's "Concentrated State Power"

Palin-Hating Columnist Has Epiphany Meeting Pro-Palin Mothers

Judith Warner attends a Palinpalooza campaign rally in Fairfax, Va. and concludes that "liberals need to start working harder at breaking through the empathy barrier."

Times Harps on Palin's "Prepared Answers," Misleads on Her 9-11 Reference

Jim Rutenberg: "At times visibly nervous, at others appearing to hew so closely to prepared answers that she used the exact same phrases repeatedly, Ms. Palin most visibly stumbled when she was ...

Joe Biden's a Gaffe Machine But Also an "Experienced, Serious and Smart Man"

Will the Times ever describe Sarah Palin in a lead sentence in similar fashion?

Obama Camp Relying on Media to "Debunk" Palin

The Obama camp is relying on its media allies to tackle Palin for them: "[Obama's] aides said they were looking to the news media to debunk the image of her as a blue-collar reformer..."

Gee, Why Do Conservatives Think Journalists Are Snooty Liberals?

A Times reporter tells two people at a McCain rally: "You have to read the New York Times. Don't just listen to what Bill O'Reilly says."

Rohter Rides to Obama's Defense on "Distorted...Discredited" Sex-Ed Charges

Reporter Larry Rohter's pro-Obama fact-checking: McCain's accusations "seriously distort the record....old and discredited accusations." As if Barack Obama and Joe Biden never make faulty ...

NYT Reporter Absolutely Sure Obama's "Pig" Wasn't Palin

Covering for Democrats: Kate Phillips just knows that Obama wasn't insulting Palin with his "lipstick on a pig" remark. Back in 2006, Phillips tried to get people to stop talking about John ...

And This Year's Award for Bad Metaphor Goes to...

John McCain, "the happy captive"?

Public Editor Says Palin Coverage Fair, Parenting Angle "Legitimate"

Clark Hoyt says questions about Palin's "juggling" ability are totally inbounds: "The New York Times did have a front page story about the conversations that are going on among women...about how ...

Obama's Terrorist Colleague Bill Ayers Makes Cameo in Story on Education

An education story acknowledged the existence of Bill Ayers, an Obama colleague and cofounder of the violent terrorist group Weather Underground.

Seelye Shrugs Off Dem. Ed Rendell's "Big Lie" Smear of McCain

Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell accused the McCain camp of employing "the Big Lie strategy."

Bob Herbert Unleashed: "Arch-Conservative" Clarence Thomas's "Self-Hatred"

Mild-mannered columnist Bob Herbert lets the mask slip: "Self-hatred is a terrible thing. Just ask that arch-conservative Clarence Thomas."

MTV Host Russell Brand, "Intelligent...Philosophical" Bush-Hater

Some of Brand's musings: Calling President Bush a "retarded cowboy" and telling Americans they must vote for Barack Obama "on behalf of the world."

The "Fraudulent...Fiction" of the McCain-Palin Ticket

Conservatives are happy, and columnist Frank Rich is spitting mad.

The NYT Tackles US Weekly's "Scandalous" Cover Story on Sarah Palin

A focus on liberal bias: "The celebrity magazine, which usually focuses more on Britney and baby bumps than elections, drew criticism from readers for the cover. A record number of commenters on ...

Times Media Columnist Saw Journalistic Contempt for Palin at RNC

Mark Leibovich dismisses Republican arguments about liberal media bias as a campaign tactic, while media columnist David Carr takes them to heart.

No More Mr. Nice McCain: Advisor a Rove Acolyte Spreading "False," "Fierce Attacks"

"[Steve Schmidt's] stamp was reflected in the sharp tone of the scathing prime-time speeches, all of which Mr. Schmidt reviewed and approved, and some of which were criticized as stretching the ...

GOP Convention Reminded Reporter of "Belligerent" Buchanan Speech of '92

"The Republican National Convention this week in Minneapolis-St. Paul hardly measures up to the belligerence of Patrick J. Buchanan's 1992 call for a 'cultural war,' but some of the same refrains ...