Journalistic Integrity?

Will The “Old Gray Lady” Be Available At The Checkout Line?February 21st, 2008
Proving yet again that the Jayson Blair debacle was no anomaly, The New York Times has taken another step towards tabloid credibility. But mere credibility is not all that’s at stake with this latest episode of betrayal of the public trust. It’s a direct assault on the principle of journalistic integrity and purpose. Almost equally as disturbing is the increasingly cavalier attitude the Times exhibits toward the obviousness of their agenda.
One of the great blessings America offers is freedom of the press, and that freedom is there as a safeguard against tyranny, a truth meter if you will. The press is supposed to be objective and give us the story, not what it wishes the story to be. In the past decade, perhaps longer, the press has shown a transparent bias, but it has been accepted in a way because people recognized it and dealt with it by migrating to alternate sources.

What we have here, however, is the Times perpetrating an outrageous shell game on the public. Instead of merely reporting on the progress of the presidential candidates through the course of the primaries they have actively plotted a course by misleading their readers. In other words, they have been doing what they can do to promote John McCain as the Republican nominee for the purpose of knocking him down once he attained that status.

When the timing of the story of McCain’s alleged infidelity was questioned, the Times defended itself. To paraphrase Executive Editor Bill Keller, the Times publishes stories when they are ready. To quote him, “This story was no exception. It was a long time in the works.”

Is that a fact? Then why would a “highly respected newspaper” such as the Times endorse a candidate that they were prepared to smear? Less than a month ago, the Times Editorial board Wrote this piece. It was titled:
Primary Choices: John McCain

“In it, they wrote: We have shuddered at Mr. McCain’s occasional, tactical pander to the right because he has demonstrated that he has the character to stand on principle.“

While that was being written the Times was busy building the case that McCain was a man of bad character because “he cheated on his wife”. If this isn’t a clear-cut case of attempted king-making (or Queen-making, as the case may be), I don’t know what is.

At this point, I wouldn’t even insult my parakeet with this rag.
-Woody

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