NewYorkTimes

NYT Says 'Old' Constitution Outdated for Failing to Guarantee 'Entitlements' Like Health Care

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:39:00 +0000

Clay Waters

Sorry, Founders: The 'terse and old' U.S. Constitution has been ruled out of date by Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak for failing to provide such 'rights' as free health care.

Obama Decides SuperPAC No 'Threat to Democracy' After All, Times Barely Sees Stark Hypocrisy

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:19:00 +0000

Obama decides that Super PACs aren't such a "threat to democracy" after all, but the Times barely acknowledges the flip-flop: "...a milestone in Mr. Obamas evolving stances on political fund-raising."

Clay Waters

New York Times campaign reporters Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg found no hypocrisy in President Obama's Monday flip-flop on the evils of "Super PAC" fund-raising in Tuesday's front-page story, 'Obama Yields In Marshaling Of 'Super PAC.'' As of yesterday, Obama is encouraging Democrats to give to the political action committee Priorities USA, which is led by two former White House aides.

Cooper Basks in 'Obama Camp's Delight' Over Romney Struggles

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:54:00 +0000

Helene Cooper: "Both moments were perceived by the Obama re-election campaign as another gift from Mr. Romney - now dubbed 'the gift that keeps on giving' by some on the Obama team."

Clay Waters

Potential Obama opponent Mitt Romney is 'the gift that keeps on giving' according to the Obama campaign team, the New York Times' Helene Cooper eagerly reports in her Monday 'Political Memo,' 'The Flub Watch Never Stops for Obama's Team.' The text box reads: 'If Romney makes a misstep, the Democrats are ready to pounce.' And Cooper is right there to cover Team Ohama's glorious Twitter victories in loving detail.

'Terse, Old' Constitution Outdated for Failing to Guarantee 'Entitlements' Like Health Care

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:46:00 +0000

Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak conflates constitutional rights with entitlements: "But the Constitution is out of step with the rest of the world in failing to protect, at least in so many words, a right to travel, the presumption of innocence and entitlement to food, education and health care."

Clay Waters

Sorry, Founders: The 'terse and old' U.S. Constitution has been ruled out of date by Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak for failing to provide such 'rights' as free health care.

How Dare Romney Say Obama Made Economy Worse: Reporters Rush to Prez's Defense

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:19:00 +0000

Reporters rush to Obama's defense: How dare Romney say Obama has made the economy worse! "It was a dubious statement, because the unemployment rate fell to precisely what it was during Mr. Obama's first full month in office, February 2009, and nonideological economists agree that the stimulus actions taken by the administration and the Federal Reserve kept the recession from being worse."

Clay Waters

New York Times reporters Trip Gabriel (pictured right) and Ashley Parker, who follow Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, respectively, teamed up for Saturday's report from Las Vegas, 'Republican Candidates Wrangle Over Nevada," rushing to Obama's aide after a mild attack by Mitt Romney, and accused conservatives of carrying a 'caricature' image of lefty donor George Soros.

Planned Parenthood Donor Mayor Bloomberg Hailed for 'Longtime Support for...Women's Health'

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Michael Grynbaum: "But thanks to exquisite timing, an ear for the zeitgeist and an assist from the momentum and immediacy of the Internet, a $250,000 pledge from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to Planned Parenthood on Thursday turned into one of his biggest political coups in years...The donation...reflected the mayor's longtime support for the causes of reproductive rights and women's health." The Times skipped the less-flattering side of Bloomberg's enthusiasm for abortion.

Clay Waters

Reporter Michael Grynbaum wrote a valentine in news story format for Saturday's Times on Mayor Mike Bloomberg's heavily publicized donation to the abortion provider Planned Parenthood, after it initially lost funding from the Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity: 'With Fine Timing, Bloomberg Makes a Financial Pledge That Excites and Engages.'

Media's 'Blatant' Pro-Abortion Bias Clear in Komen Controversy, Says Columnist Ross Douthat

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Douthat: "From the nightly news shows to print and online media, the coverage's tone alternated between wonder and outrage - wonder that anyone could possibly find Planned Parenthood even remotely controversial and outrage that the Komen foundation had 'politicized' the cause of women's health....Conservative complaints about media bias are sometimes overdrawn. But on the abortion issue, the press's prejudices are often absolute, its biases blatant and its blinders impenetrable. In many newsrooms and television studios across the country, Planned Parenthood is regarded as the equivalent of, well, the Komen foundation: an apolitical, high-minded and humanitarian institution whose work no rational person - and certainly no self-respecting woman - could possibly question or oppose."

Clay Waters

On Sunday New York Times columnist Ross Douthat highlighted the blunt favoritism shown by the media toward Planned Parenthood in last week's headline-making spat with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, the breast cancer charity, after it announced it would no longer fund the prominent abortion provider: 'The Media's Abortion Blinders.'

Network Newscast Blackout of Mandate on Catholics Continues, But Sunday Talk Shows Take It Up

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:04:00 +0000

Brent Baker

The broadcast network evening and morning newscast blackout, of the Obama administration plan to force health insurance offered by Catholic charities and hospitals to cover sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and contraception without a co-pay, continued over the weekend, yet the ABC and NBC Sunday morning talk shows took up the topic.

Times Celebrates Social Media Outcry That Would Soon Force Komen to Capitulate

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:08:00 +0000

Friday's lead story celebrated the social media outcry among "the growing number of people online, mostly women, who decried what they view as the politicization of women's health care," which would later that day force Komen to capitulate to the abortion provider Planned Parenthood.

Clay Waters

A stacked deck of headlines ushered in Friday's lead New York Times story by Jennifer Preston and Gardiner Harris on the decision (since rescinded) by the breast cancer group Komen to cut off funding from the abortion provider Planned Parenthood: 'Outcry Is Fierce To Cut In Funds By Cancer Group – Komen Feels Pressure – $250,000 Donation for Planned Parenthood From Bloomberg.'

Not Even 'Angry Conservatives' Likes 'Watching Grass Wilt' Because Of State Cuts

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:26:00 +0000

More Texas liberalism in the "news" section: "The hypothesis here - and an election is a fast way to test it - is that even conservatives want government to function. Maybe they don't like the state's cuts in education and health and human services, or sitting in crowded traffic on underbuilt highway systems, or watching grass wilt in the face of a record drought in a state whose government won't finance its water plan."

Clay Waters

Ross Ramsey made Friday's National edition with 'Message of a New Crop of Republican Candidates: It's Not Just About Cuts,' a liberal pro-spending editorial in the guise of a news story showing even Texas Republicans (i.e. "angry conservatives") starting to regret 'watching grass wilt' and government not functioning allegedly due to brutal state budget cuts.

Strange New Respect for Mormon Faith When It Comes to Amnesty for Illegals, Tweaking Romney

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:16:00 +0000

Suddenly it's not courageous to disagree with the leaders of your religion: "Romney's Tough Immigration View Is at Odds With His Church." Religion reporter Laurie Goodstein even showed respect for Mormon theology: "...it identifies with the immigrant experience, having fled persecution before settling in Utah; and it places a strong premium on keeping families intact, in this life and the next."

Clay Waters

After warning for years of the dangers posed by the Religious Right in politics, the New York Times is suddenly interested in injecting Mormon (and Catholic) religion into politics, at least when it comes to pet issues like amnesty for illegal immigrants. The top of Friday's National section featured religion reporter Laurie Goodstein's 'Romney's Tough Immigration View Is at Odds With His Church.'

Incurious Journalist Covers Fired Immigrants, Doesn't Question Legal Status

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:13:00 +0000

Jennifer Medina sympathetically covers the plight of California immigrants who were fired for failing to come up with proof of legal residence, but fails to ask the obvious question: Were they in the United States illegally or not?

Clay Waters

'Immigrant Worker Firings Unsettle a College Campus,' Jennifer Medina's sympathetic report from Claremont, Calif., on immigrants without proof of legal residency being fired from the Pomona College cafeteria, blamed the firings on union-busting on the part of campus administration and failed to pose the obvious factual question: Were the workers here illegally or not?

NYT Sides With 'Health Provider' Planned Parenthood in 'Partisan' Komen Funding Cut-Off

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:34:00 +0000

Reporters Gardiner Harris and Pam Belluck claim that "Only a small percentage of Planned Parenthood's expenditures go toward abortion services." Yet the Times also admitted PP was "the nation's largest abortion provider." The reporters also decried the group "being the target of partisan investigations....So Komen's new rule effectively ended their long partnership and seemed to the health services provider an unacceptable betrayal of their common mission to save women's lives."

Clay Waters

New York Times reporters Gardiner Harris and Pam Belluck passed on the outrage of pro-choice groups to news that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, which fights breast cancer, is cutting financial support to Planned Parenthood in the wake of bad publicity and a congressional investigation.

Meet Mitt Romney, 'Unfeeling Corporate Titan'

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:12:00 +0000

Well, it's slightly better than "greedy titan," which is the insult Times reporters relayed in January.

Clay Waters

Times reporter Ashley Parker, on the Romney campaign trail, used an out-of-context remark by Mitt Romney to rehash Romney's list of rich-guy campaign gaffes: ''Poor' Quote By Romney Joins a List Critics Love.'

Times Freely Mocks Mormons: 'I Wouldn't Buy the Underwear Just Yet'

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:19:00 +0000

The Times online has "Room for Debate" to mock some religions, including Mormonism: "I wouldn't buy the underwear just yet....[the Mormon Church] has used its mobilizing genius to pursue political goals, and individual Mormons have obeyed like sheep." Would the Times mock the rituals of devout Muslims or compare them to sheep?

Clay Waters

Mormon fear at the New York Times. The paper's online 'Room for Debate' section, which 'invites knowledgeable outside contributors to discuss news events and other timely issues' on Monday asked 'What Is It About Mormons?," inspired by the prospect of Mitt Romney winning the Republican nomination for president. The fact that the Senate has for the last five years been led by a Mormon, Democrat Harry Reid, has failed to trigger similar concerns at the Times.