Journalistic fraud: How the NY Times Distorts the News: Conference tomorrow in San Francisco

PACIFIC RESEARCH.ORG ^ | JUNE 6, 2005 | CHRISTINA DONEGAN

[CHARLITE]

Tuesday, June 7, 2005
7:45 am: Continental breakfast
8:00 am to 9:00 am: Discussion

Special: Bring one guest for free

Bob Kohn wants the Times to change. An attorney and executive with experience in both the entertainment and high-tech industries, Kohn is fed-up with the increasingly biased journalism in The New York Times.

Kohn lays out his case in his second book, Journalistic Fraud: How the New York Times Distorts the News and Why It Can No Longer Be Trusted. His objective is to restore the Times as the “newspaper of record” by providing point-by-point examples of the liberal bias that pervades the paper. It isn't the editorial pages that disturb Kohn. Instead, he's worried about the disguising of opinion as straight news. Kohn argues this is a sort of fraud on the thousands of readers who expect hard facts, and counters by showing readers how to untangle the truth.

Please join PRI on Tuesday, June 7, for breakfast and the straight story.

Location:
World Trade Club,
San Francisco
One Ferry Plaza (just behind the Ferry Building)

Please note this is a different location than most PRI breakfasts

Cost: $25
Breakfast included

RSVP to:
Christina Donegan

To register:
RSVP with payment information by phone (415-955-6110) or via email at cdonegan@pacificresearch.org.

[Agent Smith]

His objective is to restore the Times as the “newspaper of record”

LOL, that might happen if the board of directors sends Pinch on a permanent vacation and hires Mark Steyn as his replacement. Until then, I am not holding my breath or restarting my lapsed subscription.

[Paleo Conservative]

His objective is to restore the Times as the “newspaper of record” by providing point-by-point examples of the liberal bias that pervades the paper.

It can't be done. Some other entity or collection of entities will replace it. The problem is not new, it's just that it has only been in the last few years that ordinary people have been able to amass the facts to prove the bias in time to challenge their stories while they are still news. Restoring the New York Times as the "newspaper of record" is just as futile as restoring Braniff or Pan Am as the best airlines in the US.

[Cicero]

Pinch Sulzberger isn't about to change his stripes any time soon, but it's possible to discredit the Times in the public eye. The MSM is getting a lot of bad PR. Confidence and reputation take a long time to build, and the more we can do to tear it down, the better.

[Cicero]

Yes. Fr. Benedict Groeschel wrote a fascinating article pointing out that, over the course of history, failed religious orders rarely reform. They wither and die, and new reformed orders arise to take their place.

So history suggests that you are probably right. There's some chance the Times could reform, but it's more likely they will continue to decline and another newspaper will move into its old spot as the paper of record.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Even if you fixed all of the problems at the New York Times - the bias, the fraud, the elitism, it still wouldn't matter.

These days, the newspaper of record is no longer a newspaper.

[speedy]

It's great to keep the heat on the NY Times. Its reputation has never been as low as it is now, and it is important to keep hitting it while it is down. If we could ever uproot the Times, the rest of the MSM liberal apparatus would come crashing down around it.

[CHARLITE]

"Yes. Fr. Benedict Groeschel wrote a fascinating article pointing out that, over the course of history, failed religious orders rarely reform. They wither and die, and new reformed orders arise to take their place."

Let's hope that this will hold true for Islam...with Christianity taking its place........globally.

"Reform" of such a blood-and-death cult isn't possible. It must be eradicated from the face of the earth.

Char

[Paleo Conservative]

Yes. Fr. Benedict Groeschel wrote a fascinating article pointing out that, over the course of history, failed religious orders rarely reform. They wither and die, and new reformed orders arise to take their place.

That's similar to Joseph Schumpeter's theory of "creative destruction" in economics.

[Bombay Bloke]

I know NYT-bashing is a regular pasttime on FR but I don't really understand it. It is a liberal newspaper. They know and we know it. What's the problem? Does Kohn really want so-called "unbiased" reporting (there's no such thing, btw)? In that case, he better target Fox News, which is a staunchly conservative news channel - exactly the way I like it. I don't think FOX is unbiased - but I do think it gives the anti-liberal point of view. All this talk about restoring objectivity to our media is just tilting at windmills.

[Just A Nobody]

In that case, he better target Fox News, which is a staunchly conservative news channel - exactly the way I like it.

Have you watched FNC in the past 6 months? Either you are not as conservative as you think you are, or I have become a far right wing radical nut case. (which is entirely possible, I guess) I can barely watch Brit anymore. Turn it off more often than not.

[Cicero]

That's similar to Joseph Schumpeter's theory of "creative destruction" in economics.

I was thinking the same thing. The Catholic Church survived, with ups and downs, for two thousand years, which must be some kind of world record, but particular institutions within the Church have often gone belly up.

I'm hoping the same thing applies to America. Individual institutions may go bad and die--businesses, universities, religious denominations (you need religion of some sort to buttress a country's morality), newspapers--but hopefully America will retain its flexibility and survive. That's one reason why state socialism is so bad. When it collapses, it drags down the whole country, and recovery is difficult.

You need what Catholics call subsidiarity, shoals of subsidiary institutions to do the work as locally as possible. Centralization leads to sclerosis.