Editorials

New York Times Touts ‘Plain Packaging,’ Downplays Impact of Taxes on Tobacco

julia.seymour — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 18:46:39 +0000

Business story supports pro-regulatory position of Times editorial board which attacked tobacco 24 times in two years.

Sean Long

The New York Times thinks regulations like tobacco packaging laws will reduce smoking, but a recent business story on the subject made that case while downplaying other factors.

— Sean Long is Staff Writer at the Media Research Center. Follow Sean Long on Twitter.

After Snarling at Business Fliers as 'People With Money,' NYT Releases Special Business Travel Section

clay.waters — Thu, 02 May 2013 19:42:52 +0000

Clay Waters

The New York Times devoted a special section Wednesday to Business Travel, with sympathetic articles like "Dispatches From the Foxholes of Business Travel" and "Frustrated Air Travelers, the T.S.A. Chief Shares Your Pain."

Unbiased? 18 of 20 Top Newspapers Push Gun Control in Editorials

dan.gainor — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:23:12 +0000

Major papers demonize NRA, call for more gun bans.

Liz Thatcher

Neutral Journalism: Of top 20 circulating newspapers, 18 pushed gun control in editorials from Dec. 15, 2012 to Jan. 11, 2013.
Pushing Gun Control: 97 percent of the gun editorials (89 out of 92) promoted gun control or attacked the NRA.

At one time, newspapers were America’s source for news and current events. Today it’s a completely different story. While President Obama has declared a push to ban or limit types of guns, the nation’s major newspapers are nearly unanimous in their support of gun control.

NYT Aggressively Pushing Gun Control in Massacre Coverage, Promises More to Come

clay.waters — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:02:28 +0000

Clay Waters

The New York Times continues to helpfully lay out a path for Obama to order up gun control legislation in the wake of the tragedy at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

New York Times Drenches Itself in Hypocrisy With Flood Control Criticism of GOP

clay.waters — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:24:43 +0000

Clay Waters

Tuesday's lead New York Times editorial, which cynically used the weather to make pro-Democratic political hay, also displayed the paper's galling hypocrisy on emergency natural disaster spending: "The Storm, Again – As high winds approach the gulf coast, Republicans advocate a less prepared government." Perhaps they were reading old New York Times editorials on flood control, which questioned the wisdom of building levees in flood plains.

NYT Editorials, News Stories Agree on "Miserable" and "Unbearable" Lives of Illegals

clay.waters — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:54:38 +0000

Clay Waters

Tuesday’s lead editorial lambasting the GOP field as fringe and extremist on illegal immigration (“Immigration and the Campaign – President Obama is less than inspiring, but the Republicans have abandoned all principle”) sounded a bit like the paper’s supposedly objective news coverage of the issue, which it insists on calling “immigration,” not “illegal immigration.”

No Liberals on the Supreme Court?

admin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:00:00 +0000

From an angry Times lead editorial: "Wal-Mart got what it wanted from the court - unanimous dismissal of the suit as the plaintiffs presented it - and more from the five conservative justices, who went further in restricting class actions in general....Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the four moderates on the court, dissented from Justice Scalia's broader analysis and sought a much narrower holding."

Clay Waters

The New York Times editorial board believes there are no liberals on the Supreme Court. That's right: The Obama appointees Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor as well as Clinton appointee and former ACLU lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg, are all merely 'moderates.'

An excerpt from Tuesday's angry lead editorial on a decision on a class-action employmenty discrimination lawsuit not to the paper's liberal liking, 'Wal-Mart Wins. Workers Lose.'

After Urging Restraint After Fort Hood Massacre, Shameless NYT Blames GOP for AZ

admin — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:42:00 +0000

After a radical Muslim Army officer killed a dozen soldiers in Texas, the Times editorialized "it will be important to avoid drawing prejudicial conclusions from the fact that Major Hasan is an American Muslim whose parents came from the Middle East." Yet the Times showed no hesitation at all from blaming conservatives for contributing to violence: "But it is legitimate to hold Republicans and particularly their most virulent supporters in the media responsible for the gale of anger that has produced the vast majority of these threats, setting the nation on edge."

Clay Waters

Monday's lead editorial, "Bloodshed and Invective in Arizona," unmasked the paper's blatant hyper-partisanship and shameless willingness to use a tragedy to score political points against its conservative opponents.

NYT Editorial Page: First Amendment Protects Violent Video Games, Not Political Speech

admin — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:43:00 +0000

The Times favors free expression in video games: "The Constitution, however, does not require speech to be ideal for it to be protected." But not in speech on issues of the day: "Congress must act immediately to limit the damage of this radical decision, which strikes at the heart of democracy."

Clay Waters

Today's Times makes its editorial priorities clear: It values free speech for violent video games, but not on the issues of the day. Thursday's editorial, "Video Games and Free Speech," was launched by news the Supreme Court would review a California law that makes it illegal to sell violent video games to minors:

Obama Says: Get Your Liberal Opinions at the New York Times

admin — Mon, 03 May 2010 19:25:00 +0000

Obama encouraged University of Michigan graduates to keep an open mind: "If you're someone who only reads the editorial page of The New York Times, try glancing at the page of The Wall Street Journal once in awhile."

Clay Waters

Get your liberal spin on the news from the New York Times. That was President Obama's suggestion at his commencement speech at the University of Michigan on Saturday, part of his advice captured by the paper's headline: "President's Plea to Graduates: Be Civil, and Keep an Open Mind."

Helene Cooper covered the speech:

After Denying Obama Would Raise Taxes on Middle Class During Campaign, Times Calls for It

admin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:21:00 +0000

Times reporter Larry Rohter during the campaign: "Under [Obama's] plan, only individuals making $200,000 or more and families earning more than $250,000 a year, accounting for less than 2 percent of the population, would pay additional taxes, and more than 90 percent of the population would receive a tax break of some sort." The Times' lead editorial today: "Mr. Obama will have to face up to what he has so far avoided: the need to raise taxes broadly to rein in deficits."

Clay Waters

A long lead editorial on Friday, "Once and Future Taxes," called on Barack Obama to accept the inevitable and raise taxes to fight the $9 trillion budget deficit. Does this mean Times editors and reporters will now apologize to John McCain for claiming that Obama would only raise taxes on "the rich"?

The Times makes a full-throated call for a broad tax hike:

The Times Flatters Another Liberal Paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:19:00 +0000

"In the 1950s and '60s, under Ralph McGill, The Atlanta Constitution infuriated conservative white readers with its liberal views, especially on segregation. Cynthia Tucker, the editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has been heir to that tradition..."

Clay Waters

Richard Perez-Pena's story in Monday's Business section worried that one of the most influential liberal Southern newspapers, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, might be trending to the right on its editorial page ("Editorial Voice of an Influential Atlanta Newspaper May Move to the Right").

Egan Exploits Gun Massacres to Call for Gun Control

admin — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:52:00 +0000

Liberal reporter turned nytimes.com blogger tries to use his Western street cred to argue for stricter gun control.

Clay Waters

Timothy Egan, liberal reporter turned nytimes.com blogger, "The Guns of Spring," tried to use his Western rootsas street cred to argue for stricter gun control and to stop the worship of the Second Amendment, in a Wednesday night posting on gun violence.

GOP "Nativists" & Racists Against Illegal Immigration

admin — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:16:00 +0000

The Times reaches back to the "racist Willie Horton ads" to suggest many in the GOP are racist extremists on immigration. And did you know the NRA was "extremist" as well?

Clay Waters

The Times has been on a pro-amnesty rampage of late, issuing two fiery editorials over the weekend, one a Sunday lead editorial headlined "The Nativists Are Restless," another on Saturday criticizing new New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's opposition to issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.

Inauguration Hypocrisy: NYT Chided Bush Gala, but Obamans Free to Party

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:46:00 +0000

What happened to the paper's 2005 anti-Bush criticism of a "lavish inaugural celebration in a time of war"?

Clay Waters

At a time when the United States is fighting two wars and faces a severe recession and huge budget deficits, the inauguration ofBarack Obama asthe nation's 44th presidentis estimated to cost $45 million. Bush's 2004 inauguration cost roughly $40 million. But though the figures are similarthere's been a major shift in the tone of coverage at the Times.