Unwilling Paper of Record

Maybe it's Reason No. 84,157 why no one trusts the press, or maybe it's just that the New York Times would rather cover some stories than others.

The paper issued an "our bad" of sorts this week, in a column by Public Editor Clark Hoyt, after taking heat from readers for its selective reporting of the latest ACORN scandal. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/opinion/27pubed.html?em)

On September 12, the Times ran a brief AP report that the Census Bureau had cut ties with the organization. You'd never have known it from the article, but for days, the land of the living had been all atwitter over undercover footage that showed ACORN employees discussing and advising illegal activities. In addition to failing one of the most basic requirements of grade school newspaper class, the Times provided a party platter of fodder to those who would accuse it as a member of the liberal media. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/us/politics/12acorn.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=census%20bureau&st=cse)

Hoyt writes in his column that some editors told him they had not known about the ACORN videos, which suggests that the paper's staff is not guilty of the appearance of glaring bias, just pitifully clueless. For newspaper editors, I'm not sure which is worse.

At least one person at the Times did not have his fingers in his ears. Blogger Bernie Becker mentioned the Brooklyn video in his September 14 posting, in which he reported that the Senate had voted to block funding to ACORN. (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/senate-says-no-funding-for-acorn/)

While bitterly stressing conservative take-down efforts, the print version of the newspaper finally acknowledged the videos on September 16. As Hoyt notes in his column, the article focused too much on the political aftermath of the videos--being dropped from the census effort and having its funding cut--rather than reporting the fact that people had filmed some other people saying some very questionable things. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/us/politics/16acorn.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=acorn&st=cse)

But here again, the Times gives us another reason not to trust them. In the article by Scott Shane, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis is reported to have said that undercover film crew visited their offices in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia, before they were able to catch employees red-handed. However, we learn later in Hoyt's column that Shane chose to leave out one city: New York. Although Lewis had told Shane that the activists had made an attempt in New York, he chose to leave it out of the article because the Brooklyn video had surfaced following her statement, and, as he explained to Hoyt, did not want to imply that Lewis was lying. And later, Hoyt writes, a video showing ACORN workers in San Diego was released, as well.

Perhaps Shane should be reassigned to the p.r. department. As my editor back in New Canaan, Conn. used to say, "Just report the damn news."