IanUrbina

Times Critics Vindicated: Public Editor Dresses Down Dubious Article Critical of Natural Gas Industry

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:43:00 +0000

Times Public Editor Arthur Brisbane concluded of Ian Urbina's controversial front-page Sunday story on natural gas: "...such a pointed article needed more convincing substantiation, more space for a reasoned explanation of the other side and more clarity about its focus....the article went out on a limb, lacked an in-depth dissenting view in the text and should have made clear that shale gas had boomed."

Clay Waters

New York Times Public Editor Arthur Brisbane gave a dressing down to reporter Ian Urbina's heavily criticized recent Sunday front-page article on natural gas extraction, 'Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush,' in his Sunday column, 'Clashing Views on the Future of Natural Gas.' The benign headline concealed a reasonably incisive critique, accusing Urbina of making unsubstantiated claims and failing to provide

Yet Another 'Fracking' Story on the Front Page: NYT Again Hits 'Reckless' Natural Gas Extraction

admin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:35:00 +0000

No love from the Times for Gov. Cuomo on this issue, anyway: "The Cuomo administration is seeking to lift what has effectively been a moratorium in New York State on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial technique used to extract natural gas from shale, state environmental regulators said on Thursday. The process would be allowed on private lands, opening New York to one of the fastest-growing - critics would say reckless - areas of the energy industry."

Clay Waters

New York Times reporters Danny Hakim and Nicholas Confessore filed another in a series of front-page stories Friday revolving around the natural gas industry, especially the 'fracking' process by which natural gas is obtained from shale and is opposed by liberal environmentalists. This time the scene is the paper's own backyard: 'Cuomo Moving To End a Freeze On Gas Drilling.'

Times' Attack on Natural Gas Industry Just Smoke and Hot Air, Industry Analysts Say

admin — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:12:00 +0000

Christopher Helman at Forbes found Urbina's accusations of low reserves, false claims, and too-high extraction costs absurd on its face. The United States is currently producing more natural gas than at any time in history, on track for 27 trillion cubic feet this year....We would have thought that the Times would be in favor of plentiful, low-cost natural gas. It burns a lot cleaner than coal, and with nuclear off the table for now, gas is poised to fuel U.S. economic growth for more than a generation to come. I can only guess that the problem, as the Times sees it, is that as long as we have all that cheap gas, there's precious little need for solar panels, windmills and other cornerstones of their much-heralded but slow evolving green jobs revolution."

Clay Waters

The front page of Wednesday's National section of the New York Times featured the suddenly ubiquitous Ian Urbina advancing the paper's agenda against the natural gas industry, as he's been doing all week: 'Lawmakers Seek Inquiry Of Natural Gas Industry.'

The Times' Latest Gas Attack

admin — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:23:00 +0000

Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations writes of reporter Ian Urbina's two front-page stories doubting the prospects for natural gas: "Urbina was clearly looking for negative views of shale gas, and had no problem finding them....What is a surprise is that Urbina hasn't done much to put them in context....The Times descriptions of the emails....also betray a serious lack of understanding of the industry."

Clay Waters

For a paper so eager to wean us off 'our addiction to foreign oil,' the Times is pretty squeamish when it comes to the actual alternatives.

Times Watch Quotes of Note - Voters 'Don't Want' GOP to Stop Obama-care for Fear of 'Gridlock'

admin — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:28:00 +0000

Also, Frank Rich warns that the radical right's anger will target "gays, Latinos and Muslims," and conservatives lie about vote fraud.

Clay Waters

Voters 'Don't Want' GOP to Stop Obama-care for Fear of 'Gridlock'

After Railing About Secret GOP Money Buying the Election, Times Dumps GOP Claims of Dem Vote Fraud

admin — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 04:09:00 +0000

Ian Urbina blames conservatives for forwarding myths of vote fraud: "In 2006, conservative activists repeatedly claimed that the problem of people casting fraudulent votes was so widespread that it was corrupting the political process and possibly costing their candidates victories. The accusations turned out to be largely false, but they led to a heated debate, with voting rights groups claiming that the accusations were crippling voter registration drives and squelching turnout."

Clay Waters

After all the caterwauling about "anonymous donors" supposedly "buying the election" by running ads favoring the GOP this election cycle, the Times isn't showing itself overly concerned about actual cases of potential vote fraud involving Democrats.

No Rebuttals Against Gay Marriage in D.C.

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:31:00 +0000

Reporter Ian Urbina interviewed three happy gay couples, but no one opposed to gay marriage in the District of Columbia.

Clay Waters

Reporter Ian Urbina celebrated the dawn of gay marriage in the nation's capital with three of the happy couples in Thursday's "Nation's Capital Joins 5 States in Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage." Urbina quoted three people who got married on Wednesday, but no one opposed to gay marriage in the district.

Times Stoops to State Level to Criticize Court's Free Speech Ruling; Kudos to Kirkpatrick

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:26:00 +0000

Reporter Ian Urbina gripes about state-level inconveniences resulting from the Supreme Court's ruling expanding free speech during political campaigns, while reporter David Kirkpatrick surprisingly bucks the conventional liberal media wisdom that money has an inevitably corrupting influence on politics.

Clay Waters

On Saturday the Times found yet another angle from which to fret over the recent Supreme Court decision loosening restrictions on political spending by corporations during elections, a free speech victory treated as a danger to democracy by both liberals and the so-called friends of free speech who write for the Times.

Baltimore's Dem Mayor on Trial for Embezzlement: Times Lends Moral Support

admin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:37:00 +0000

Ian Urbina focused not on the charges against Democratic Mayor Sheila Dixon, but the fact that they "cast a cloud over [her] administration despite her best efforts to keep the focus on running the city. Urbina also focused on the local NAACP's fears of a white person running the city after a Dixon conviction.

Clay Waters

Ian Urbina reported from Baltimore on Tuesday on the opening of the trial of city mayor Sheila Dixon: "Theft and Embezzlement Trial Begins for Mayor of Baltimore."

Dixon is a Democrat, but you'd be hard-pressed to prove it with the Times, which didn't identify her party until halfway into the story, paragraph 14 of 24.

Urbina painted the trial as a distraction for Dixon:

GOP Won With Moderation, Is Ripping Itself Apart, & These Elections Don't Even Matter (Unless Dems Win)

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Coverage of the governors' races in New Jersey and Virginia and the congressional race in New York was dominated by three themes: The Republicans won by appearing moderate; there are deep divisions within the G.O.P.; and these off-year elections don't mean much anyway (except when Democrats win, like in 2005).

Clay Waters

The G.O.P. had two big victories yesterday in off-year elections, winning the governors' races in New Jersey and Virginia for the first time since 1997. The Times' coverage was dominated by three themes used to explain away the success of Republicans:

The Republicans won by appearing moderate.
The congressional race in upstate New York revealed deep divisions within the G.O.P.
These off-year elections don't mean much anyway (except when Democrats win).

The Times Embraces Another Liberal Rally on the Hill: Illegal Immigration

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:14:00 +0000

Unlike the paper's sour coverage of the September 12 anti-spending rally, Ian Urbina's profile of Tuesday's rally for amnesty was stocked with nothing but positive vibes.

Clay Waters

Ian Urbina's online-only story on Tuesday's rally for amnesty for illegal immigrants on the West Lawn was optimistically headlined "Immigration Rally Draws Thousands."

NYT: Modest Lefty Pittsburgh Protest Comparable to Huge Conservative Protest in D.C.

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:43:00 +0000

Clay Waters

Ian Urbina's Saturday New York Times story from the Group of 20 economic meeting in Pittsburgh last weekend, about left-wing and anarchist protesters who took to the streets, came under a headline that misleadingly implied peace abided: "In Pittsburgh, Thousands Stage a Peaceful M

Modest Lefty Pittsburgh Protest Comparable to Huge Conservative Protest in D.C.?

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:21:00 +0000

Coverage of the leftists and anarchists protesting the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh downplayed the violence in a headline implying peace ruled, and boasted of a crowd size of up to 4,000. Yet the Times didn't estimate the size of the September 12 conservative rally in D.C., which some estimated to be over 100,000. In both cases Times headlines stated that "thousands" turned out, as if the rallies were comparable in size.

Clay Waters

Ian Urbina's Saturday story from the Group of 20 economic meeting in Pittsburgh last weeked, about left-wing and anarchist protesters who took to the streets, came under a headline that misleadingly claimed that peace abided: "In Pittsburgh, Thousands Stage a Peaceful March for Multiple Causes."

Pro-Obama-Care "Grassroots Advocates" - Controlled by the DNC

admin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:27:00 +0000

Advice for reporter Katharine Seelye: If pro-Obama "grassroots advocates" are operating "under the aegis of the Democratic National Committee," they aren't really "grassroots advocates."

Clay Waters

More from the paper'sObama-care blog"Prescriptions." Reporter Katharine Seelye posted "Showing Support for Overhaul" on Wednesday morning, making the implausible claim that groups organized by the Democratic National Committee were somehow "grassroots advocates."

"Almost Entirely White and Irritable Crowd" of "Angry" Obama-Care Protesters

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:52:00 +0000

After years of celebrating liberal protesters, the Times shudders as an "almost entirely white and irritable crowd" of "angry" conservatives hassle Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter about Obama-care.

Clay Waters

After years of mainstreaming and idealizing anti-war protesters and marches supporting illegal immigrants as "grandmothers with canes, parents with children in strollers," dissent against a president's policies is no longer cool in Timesland.