How the New York Times Enables Right-Wing Spin

[babylonsister]

https://prospect.org/politics/how-the-new-york-times-enables-right-wing-spin/

How the New York Times Enables Right-Wing Spin
Its op-ed editors are played for fools by the right’s propagandists.
by Robert Kuttner
December 7, 2021


The New York Times has a dilemma. It is both our national paper of record and a paper with a basically liberal editorial stance. Unlike the right-wing press, the Times prizes factual accuracy in its news reporting. So, as good liberals who believe in presenting both sides of a controversy, how to offer space on the op-ed page to conservative viewpoints without sacrificing its core commitment to facts?

Given the tendency of an increasing fraction of conservatives to dwell in the realm of delusion, this goal is not easy. But the Times is bungling it by publishing op-eds by writers who are disingenuous about who they are and what they are selling, as well as intellectually dishonest.

The Times needs a better filter to detect factual whoppers and hidden agendas. Otherwise, it just enables right-wing propaganda. And of course, the placement of an op-ed in the Times by a publicist is pure gold.

As the old saying goes, you are entitled to your own opinion; you are not entitled to your own facts. The American Prospect at any given time employs three interns. Their primary assignment is fact-checking. The Times has far more interns than we do. Even opinion pieces need to be checked for basic factual accuracy. Judging by what gets into the paper, the Times doesn’t do that, or doesn’t do it well.

snip//

It’s an old problem. Robert Frost famously said that a liberal is the man who is too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel. It’s not the Times’ fault there are so few intellectually honest conservatives. But the paper needs a better BS detector.

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. When access journalism is the core of their mission, the NYT is beyond help

Talking about you, Maggie Haberman.

Access over accuracy is the NYT’s motto.

[Hortensis]

2. Journalism is studied. NYT's political coverage helps the RW get and keep

power. Around narrow, crucial elections, the NYT doesn't just slant the majority of its coverage more and more heavily against Democrats, and for Republicans, but has been caught in proven, blatant lies. All against Democrats, of course. Also others, like the AP, CNN and MSNBC.

This isn't just big money and big business, it's big ideology and huge power.

"The stakes are enormous." David Frum.

[Voltaire2]

3. Kuttner commits the same error.

He propagates the NYT’s self serving myth that it is committed to factual accuracy, ignoring the actually accurate facts regarding the NYT’s leading the media drumbeat for war with Iraq with a fully dishonest campaign of intentional lies about the situation.

[pecosbob]

4. One might even rightly call that paper 'The Spin Cycle.'

and Ms. Haberman the Queen of Crap.