Read the Times Much, Mr. Keller?
"We have a war going very badly in Iraq, and another one in Afghanistan where our declaration of victory looks very premature." - From Executive Editor Bill Keller's Hugo Young Memorial Lecture in London on November 29, sponsored by the liberal Guardian (U.K.) newspaper.
The "Discriminatory" Boy Scouts
"For three years the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America held its ground. It resisted the city's request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people despite threats that if it did not do so, the city would evict the group from a municipal building where the Scouts have resided practically rent free since 1928." - Ian Urbina, December 6. The Boy Scouts believe open homosexuality is inconsistent with its values.
Gunning for "Just Plain Wrong" Giuliani
"Discussing his crime-fighting success as mayor, Mr. Giuliani told a television interviewer that New York was 'the only city in America that has reduced crime every single year since 1994.' In New Hampshire this week, he told a public forum that when he became mayor in 1994, New York 'had been averaging like 1,800, 1,900 murders for almost 30 years.' When a recent Republican debate turned to the question of fiscal responsibility, he boasted that 'under me, spending went down by 7 percent.' All of these statements are incomplete, exaggerated or just plain wrong . And while, to be sure, all candidates use misleading statistics from time to time, Mr. Giuliani has made statistics a central part of his candidacy as he campaigns on his record." - From Michael Cooper's November 30 front-page story.
Quarter-Million Vote Win by Conservative "Disputed" and "A Virtual Tie"?
"A documentary about last year's disputed presidential election has drawn big crowds and generated controversy here, after its director, Luis Mandoki, waged a long battle to find a distributor willing to take on a politically charged film. Last year's race was a virtual tie, but electoral officials determined that the conservative candidate, Felipe Calderón, had edged out a left-wing populist, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, by 243,000 votes, out of 41 million cast." - James McKinley Jr., December 2, from Mexico City.
How Dare Bush Not Negotiate with Terrorist Leader
Steven Lee Myers, November 27.
Socialist Hugo Chavez's "Bold Moves" Toward Dictatorship
"The referendum followed several weeks of street protests and frenetic campaigning over the amendments to the Constitution proposed by [Hugo] Chávez and his supporters. It caps a year of bold moves by the president, who forged a single Socialist party among his followers, forced a television network critical of the government off the public airwaves, and nationalized oil, telephone and electricity companies." - Reporter Simon Romero, after Venezuelans rejected socialist dictator Hugo Chavez's amendments to the constitution that would have let him censor the media and ended presidential term limits, December 3.
"Most Respected Voice on Military Affairs" Has no Respect for Troops
Reporter David Herszenhorn, November 19.
Reality Check: "There was no firefight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood." - Rep. John Murtha on May 17, 2006, smearing U.S troops he claimed were involved in the "massacre" in Haditha, Iraq. The case eventually fell apart.
Don't Wait for Actual Economic News: Declare Recession Now!
"As Wall Street rallied this week, it seemed that investors were taking comfort in the notion that the economy had become so imperiled by the crumbling housing market that it was forcing the government to finally mount an aggressive rescue effort....But even as investors took heart in palpable signs that the government was preparing to dole out more medicine for the ailing economy, a number of economists cautioned that the pain itself was still unfolding, with its ultimate magnitude far from known." - Economics reporter Peter Goodman's front-page story, December 1. Gross Domestic Product was 4.9% in the third quarter of 2007, the fastest growth in four years.
The Funny Pages
"...we are agnostic as to where a story may lead; we do not go into a story with an agenda or a pre-conceived notion. We do not manipulate or hide facts to advance an agenda. We strive to preserve our independence from political and economic interests, including our own advertisers. 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." - Keller in his Hugo Young Memorial Lecture in London, November 29.
