The New York Times is one of the most effective tools for limiting discussion in the U.S. political system. Falsely perceived as a left-leaning outlet, it has the power to make the most reasonable proposals seem ultra-radical by placing them beyond the pale. Take yesterday's review by Times book critic Michiko Kakutani (1/19/10) of progressive economist Joseph Stiglitz's Freefall: America, Free Markets and the Sinking of the World Economy. Kakutani says Stiglitz's accurate prediction of the financial crisis " lends credibility to his trenchant analysis of the causes of the fiscal meltdown," though at the same time she accuses him [...]
Dec
01
2008
Who Gets to Speak, Take Two: The Economy and the NYT
Two weekends ago the New York Times' Week In Review section launched an op-ed series called "Transitions," in which it promised to provide "a series of Op-Ed articles by experts on the most formidable issues facing the new president." The first installment (11/23/08), on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, featured seven op-eds. FAIR's Peter Hart broke it down: Three were enthusiastic Iraq hawks (in the cases of Rumsfeld and Chalabi, that's an understatement). One other–Cordesman– was an important voice in elite foreign policy debate who supported the invasion. Another contributor worked for Petraeus. Those perspectives are "balanced," so to [...]
