Times Watch for September 9, 2003
David Brooks Debut
David Brooks, senior
editor at The Weekly Standard, makes his debut as columnist Tuesday with
Whatever It Takes. The Times hiring of Brooks is seen by some as an attempt
to balance a liberal-leaning opinion page that currently contains only one
non-liberal columnist, William Safire. Yet if his debut column is any
indication, Brooks hiring may not do much to tip the scales toward the center.
In the opening paragraph
of his column, on Bushs shifting policy on Iraq, Brooks writes: The Bush
administration has the most infuriating way of changing its mind. The leading
Bushies almost never admit serious mistakes. They never acknowledge that they
are listening to their critics. They never even admit they are shifting course.
They don these facial expressions suggesting calm omniscience while down below
their legs are doing the fox trot in six different directions.
For a second one could be
reading a more nuanced version of
Paul
Krugman. Then you read Krugmans column for Tuesday (opposite side of the
page from Brooks): Mr. Bush created this crisis, and if he were a true patriot
he would pay a political price to resolve it. And one realizes that although
Brooks may not be a hard-core conservative (he had kind words for Sen. John
McCain during the 2000 Republican primaries), at least hes no Krugman.
To read David Brooks first entry as a Times
columnist,
click here.
ON
SECOND THOUGHT: The Times' Tax Collector
In
our June 26 critique
of Times coverage of an Internal Revenue Service report on the 400 highest
income taxpayers, Times Watch made two observations that the reporter, David Cay
Johnston, recently complained to us are not supported by facts.
Having reviewed his work
more fully we have concluded it was not accurate to write that "Johnston has
always been willing to give tax collectors a boost," and that in citing one of
his earlier stories to support this point we relied on outdated information.
Johnston's clips show he has written many enterprising articles critical of the
IRS.
Unlike most reporters, who
won't even take our telephone calls, Johnston told us why he wrote what struck
us as a biased description in favor of Citizens for Tax Justice, especially in
comparison to his description of the Heritage Foundation.
He called the liberals "a
labor-backed group" that "favors higher taxes on the wealthy" and Heritage "a
conservative organization that favors lowering taxes for all Americans." But
then Johnston went on to state that the tax justice group makes "calculations
[that] are respected by a broad spectrum of tax experts." We said that showed
bias.
Johnston said he has
quoted conservatives and libertarians in the past saying that while they
disagree with its views, they respect the integrity of CTJs calculations on
taxes. Johnston said he needed to explain to readers why he would rely on CTJs
estimates. Had similar calculations been available that day from Heritage,
Johnston says he would have vouched for the integrity of its estimates.
While we were probably too
hasty in jumping on Johnston, Times Watch still thinks that by placing the
article on the top of the front page, the Times gave the report much greater
play than it deserved and demonstrated the liberal bias of its editors on income
distribution issues.
Child
of Privilege Bush Just a Very Lucky Guy
Tuesdays lead editorial, Presidential Character,
goes moralistic on Bush, sniffing out a fundamental flaw in the character of
this White House. In the last paragraph, the Times uses Bushs background to
suggest the president is someone who expects to find an easy way out of
difficulties, writing: Mr. Bush is a man who was reared in privilege, who
succeeded in both business and politics because of his family connections. The
question during the presidential campaign was whether he was anything more than
just a very lucky guy.
Bush was a child of
privilege who succeeded because of his family connections, which of course makes
him totally unlike his election opponent, poor mans son
Al Gore.
For the rest of the Times editorial on Bush,
click here.