Speaking at the annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers, New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal said the paper “aims to ensure opinion and news are kept separate, even as the Internet increasingly blurs the line” (as reported in Advertising Age on October 17).
Stop, you’re killing me! The New York Times is to journalistic integrity what Vlad The Impaler was to “can’t-we-all-just-learn-to-get-along?”
The public doesn’t share Rosenthal’s perspective. Earlier this year, a Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 24% of American voters have a favorable opinion of The New York Times – making the paper almost as popular as trial lawyers.
On October 22, the well-respected Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released a survey on how the public sees the media leaning in the current campaign. By a margin of 70% to 9%, voters said most journalists favor Obama over McCain.
The perception of media favoritism is stronger this year than ever before. At this stage in the 2004 campaign, just 50% of those surveyed said the media favored John Kerry, while 22% saw them leaning toward George W. Bush.
As bad as The New York Times has been before, it’s nothing compared to the way the paper has managed, manipulated and mangled coverage of the 2008 campaign.
Not a day goes by that The Times doesn’t misrepresent John McCain, ridicule Sarah Palin, refuse to report a revelation that reflects badly on the Obama-Biden campaign, or rationalize Obama’s radical past.
That Rosenthal has the chutzpah to claim The New York Times strives to separate news from opinion demonstrates that those who run America’s so-called newspaper of record are either self-deluded or pathological liars.
@nytimes.com
