NicholasConfessore

Times Puts Photo of Romney's Tax Return in Lead Story Slot

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:50:00 +0000

More tax-hike propaganda in Wednesday's lead slot, conveniently matching President Obama's tax-the-rich campaign strategy. The Times took an obsessively detailed look at Mitt Romney's recently released tax returns while suggesting the findings bolstered Obama's argument that the rich are undertaxed, while ignoring the reality that "Romney pays at a much higher rate than most Americans."

Clay Waters

There was more tax-hike propaganda from the New York Times on Wednesday's front page, as reporters Nicholas Confessore and David Kocieniewski matched President Obama's campaign strategy by taking an obsessively detailed look at Mitt Romney's recently released tax returns while suggesting the findings bolstered Obama's argument that the rich are undertaxed: 'For Romneys, Friendly Code Reduces Taxes.'

NYT Makes Romney's 15% Tax Rate a Loaded Lead Story, Ignores Context

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:41:00 +0000

By paragraph three the Times had characterized the candidate's remarks as "likely to cement Mr. Romney's place as an unwilling emblem of the intensifying national debate over taxation and income inequality." The Washington Post provided context the Times left out: "Even at 15 percent, however, Romney would pay more than most Americans."

Clay Waters

The New York Times jumped hard on GOP candidate Mitt Romney's allowing that his personal tax rate was around 15%, making it Wednesday's lead story under a loaded deck of headlines: 'Pressed, Romney Shares Tax Data; A Rate Near 15% – Investment, Not Salary – Draws Notice to Treatment of Rich.' There were a lot of reporters on board the 'scoop': Nicholas Confessore, David Kocieniewski and Ashley Parker, with additional reporting from three others.

NYT Reporters Huff: Social Security Is Not a Ponzi Scheme

admin — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:35:00 +0000

Two liberal Times reporters rush to Social Security defense against Gov. Rick Perry's "Ponzi" persecution: "While there are some superficial similarities, it is ultimately a misleading exaggeration to describe Social Security as a Ponzi scheme."

Clay Waters

Tuesday New York Times 'Check Point' was the latest liberally slanted fact check of a G.O.P. presidential debate, this time by two liberal reporters, Michael Cooper and Nicholas Confessore, 'Perry's Criticism of Social Security as 'Ponzi Scheme' Dogs Him in Debate.'

News Story Hits G.O.P.'s 'Untrue...Misleading' Claims About Drilling, Social Security

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:50:00 +0000

Three liberal reporters teamed up to fact-check the Republican debate (and defend President Obama): "The candidates' arguments run into factual hurdles."

Clay Waters

Three liberal New York Times reporters teamed up Thursday morning to fact-check the Republican debate (and defend Obama) at the Reagan library.

John Broder, Nicholas Confessore, and Jackie Calmes cowrote 'Attacking the Democrats, but Not Always Getting It Right,' which was not labeled or presented as "news analysis" (something the Times is doing less of lately anyway) but as a factual news story. The text box read: 'The candidates' arguments run into factual hurdles.'

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.'

Hillary's Replacement Still Too Conservative for Liberal Times Reporters

admin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:48:00 +0000

Another day, another analysis of New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's former "white and rural district" and her "100 percent rating" from the NRA. Did the Times care about Hillary Clinton's 100 percent rating from pro-abortion NARAL?

Clay Waters

Nicholas Confessore, a liberal opinionjournalist turned Times reporter, was the latest to fret about new New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who took Hillary Clinton's seat when Clinton joined the Obama administration.

The Times Gets Taken in By Another Fabulist

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:52:00 +0000

Meet "Margaret B. Jones," author of a gang memoir about her days as a half-white girl in the hood that turned out to be totally fabricated.

Clay Waters

Last Thursday, the Times' Motoko Rich profiled Margaret B. Jones, author of the gang memoir "Love and Consequences," for the Times' Home & Garden section. But the real drama came in Rich's shocking front-page follow-up - both the book publisher and the Times has been taken in by "Margaret B. Jones," whose life story turned out to be a lie.

Nicholas Confessore on the GOP's Self-Important Conservative "Kingmakers"

admin — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:49:00 +0000

Liberal magazine writer turned Times reporter writes on conservative activists: "They still see themselves as indispensable kingmakers without whom no Republican can win the nomination, let alone the White House. As a result, Mr. McCain has emerged as a genuine threat. Should he win the nomination over their opposition after all, the kingmakers would be dethroned."

Clay Waters

Sunday's Week in Review section led with Nicholas Confessore's "The Vanishing Establishment."

Eliot Spitzer Extends "Olive Branch" While "G.O.P. Pouts"

admin — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:24:00 +0000

Nicholas Confessore can't believe Republicans would act "frosty" toward Gov. Spitzer - but doesn't mention "Troopergate," in which state police were misused to track the travel of Spitzer's political nemesis, Republican Sen. Joseph Bruno.

Clay Waters

New York State Gov. Eliot Spitzer delivered his second State of the State address in Albany on Wednesday, and Nicholas Confessore, the liberal journalist for the American Prospect turned Times journalistwrote it up for Thursday -"Niceness,Campaign in Albany Gets Nowhere as G.O.P.

The Times Finds Media Bias in Lou Dobbs' Excoriation of Illegal Immigration

admin — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:02:00 +0000

A selective venture into journalistic fact checking, again starring Lou Dobbs and his "thunderous" opposition to illegal immigration.

Clay Waters

The Times made another of its selective ventures into journalist fact-checking, and again focused on Lou Dobbs, the one journalist on the "wrong" side of the debate over illegal immigration and one of the few journalists the Times ever deigns to critique- always based on his refusal to abide illegal immigration.

Frank Rich and the Big Republican Gay List

admin — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 18:02:00 +0000

Rich gets personal: "The split between the Republicans' outward homophobia and inner gayness isn't just hypocrisy; it's pathology. Take the bizarre case of Karl Rove....we now learn from 'The Architect,' the recent book by the Texas journalists James Moore and Wayne Slater, that Mr. Rove's own (and beloved) adoptive father, Louis Rove, was openly gay in the years before his death in 2004."

Clay Waters

Editor/columnist Frank Rich goes wild in his Sunday (TimesSelect $ required) column, "The Gay Old Party Comes Out," doing a little cowardly outing by proxy regarding the alleged "list" of prominent gay Republicans.

Letting Liberal Ned Lamont off the Hook

admin — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 16:07:00 +0000

The Times buries the lead in its story on the "Lieberman-in-blackface" blogger, and lets anti-war candidate Ned Lamont implausibly deny connections to her.

Clay Waters

The bitter Senate Democratic primary race in Connecticut between Sen. Joe Lieberman and anti-war rich guy Ned Lamont has generated even more controversy thanks to an offensiveposting at the left-wing Huffington Post blog by blogger Jane Hamsher. But "In Connecticut, Bloggers Throw Political Curves And Spitballs," by reporters Mike McIntire and Jennifer Medina, takes its sweet time getting to the point.