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On Brain Scans, NY Times Ignores Its Own Columnist
June 18, 2013 at 6:39 am Send |
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"The next time somebody tells you what a brain scan says, be a little skeptical. The brain is not the mind." — David Brooks, New York Times column, page A25, June 18, 2013.
"Breast Milk Is Good For the Brain, Scans Show" — headline of article, New York Times "Science Times" section, page D4, June 18, 2013.
June 17, 2013 at 7:43 am
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A Times column headlined "What Sweden Can Tell Us About ObamaCare" reports:
The United States spends more than $8,000 a person per year on health care, well more than twice what Sweden spends. Yet health outcomes are far better in Sweden along virtually every dimension. Its infant mortality rate, for example, was recently less than half that of the United States. And males aged 15 to 60 are almost twice as likely to die in any given year in the United States than in Sweden.
In fairness, those differences result partly from lifestyle. In Sweden, workers are more likely to commute by bicycle than by car, for example, and obesity is far less common. Absolute poverty and income inequality — both associated with adverse health outcomes — are also lower.
Continue ReadingJune 17, 2013 at 7:22 am
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The New York Times seems to be moderating its description of the winning candidate in Iran's presidential election, Hassan Rowhani. Here's the evolution of the Times coverage:
Saturday, page one headline: "Moderate in Iranian Election Leads in Initial Returns."
Sunday, page one headline: "Iran Moderate Wins Presidency by a Large Margin."
Monday, page A6, news article:
June 14, 2013 at 8:56 am
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From a New York Times news article on the departure of David DeVoe, the chief financial officer of News Corp.:
That split will take place on June 28, when entertainment assets like Fox News, FX and a Hollywood studio will form a new company called 21st Century Fox. Publishing units, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and HarperCollins, and a handful of Australian television assets will form a company called News Corporation.
"Entertainment assets like Fox News"?
June 13, 2013 at 9:50 am
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An article in the Home section of the New York Times about a Brooklyn house owned by the musician Mike D of the Beastie Boys and his wife filmmaker Tamra Davis carries the following sentence:
Mr. Diamond, who prefers not to give his age, now has two boys of his own, Davis, 10, and Skyler, 8, with his wife, Tamra Davis, a filmmaker, who also prefers not to give her age.
Plenty of other people the Times writes about would prefer not to give their ages, but the Times either figures them out using public records and puts them in anyway, or just leaves them out rather than making a big fuss about it. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the Times gave Mr. Diamond and Ms. Davis more flexible treatment in exchange for being allowed into their house to do an article about it for the Home section.
June 12, 2013 at 9:07 am
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An editorial in today's New York Times correctly faults Speaker Boehner and Senator Feinstein for characterizing Edward Snowden, the source of the Guardian and Washington Post articles about secret U.S. government data collection programs, as a traitor. The editorial says:
In the landmark 1945 case Cramer v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that one had to provide aid and comfort and also "adhere" to an enemy to be guilty of treason.
"A citizen may take actions which do aid and comfort the enemy," the court said, "making a speech critical of the government or opposing its measures, profiteering, striking in defense plants or essential work, and the hundred other things which impair our cohesion and diminish our strength — but if there is no adherence to the enemy in this, if there is no intent to betray, there is no treason."
Conservatives as Defenders of the Media
June 9, 2013 at 11:57 pm| Send |
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A New York Times article about conservatives upset at the Department of Justice for scrutinizing journalists includes the following paragraph:
"It's a sea change, to say the least, in how it's being covered," said Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a nonprofit, liberal research organization that devotes much of its efforts to criticizing Fox News. "I can't think of a single example of Fox News ever coming to the aid of a reporter who was at the center of a national security leak," Mr. Boehlert added.
One such example that exists but that Mr. Boehlert apparently was not able to think of, and that the Times does not mention, is Judith Miller, who was at the center of a national security leak case as a reporter at the New York Times and who then became a Fox News contributor after leaving the Times.
June 9, 2013 at 11:49 pm
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A New York Times article about the trend of male nudity in Broadway and West End observes that the actors are becoming "eye candy for the tired businesswoman or gay man. (And don't think that producers aren't banking on the appeal to that reliable theatergoing demographic.)"
The producers "banking" on this "appeal" include not only the theater producers but, apparently, the Web producers of the New York Times, who accompany the article with a slide show headlined "A Bevy of Bare Chests."
Somehow, when Broadway producers do it, the Times critics complains that it is crass objectification that panders to certain demographics. But when the Times does the same thing, it's just covering the news, right?
June 7, 2013 at 9:07 am
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The business section of today's New York Times carries an article by reporter Stephanie Clifford under the headline: "More Dissent Is in Store Over Wal-Mart Scandal." The Times reports:
Some investors also objected to the heavy presence of insider directors on the board: two Waltons, one Walton son-in-law, the chief executive and a former ex-chief executive. After the 2013 meeting, when three independent directors will step down, about 65 percent of the board will be independent.
My goodness, two Waltons and one Walton son-in-law on a 17-member board!
From the New York Times Company's own corporate governance statement:
June 6, 2013 at 9:23 am
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The New York Times obituary of Frank Lautenberg reported, "When he joined the company, he was its fifth employee. But it grew rapidly, and by 1982, when he left the company as its chief executive, it was one of the largest computer service companies in the world, with 15,000 employees." However, a 2011 obituary in the Times of Henry Taub, a founder of ADP, reported, "Senator Lautenberg left the company in 1983 after winning election to the United States Senate."
When did Lautenberg leave ADP? One article reports 1982, and the other article reports 1983. It would seem that one of the two articles should be corrected, because it's logically difficult for them both to be accurate.
June 6, 2013 at 9:06 am
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A Times op-ed piece by Dara Horn blames the demise of standard transliterated spelling of Yiddish on the Nazis: "The only real difference between Webster's project and YIVO's is that, for six million devastating reasons, YIVO's failed and Webster's succeeded."
June 6, 2013 at 8:57 am
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Gail Collins writes in a column in today's Times:
Nothing major is going to happen for early-childhood education without an enormous groundswell of public demand. This is a cause that's extremely popular in theory. But its advocates have no power to reward or punish. Lawmakers who labor on behalf of preschool programs may get stars in heaven, but they don't get squat in campaign contributions.
The teachers unions, who would get a huge influx of new dues-paying members with an expansion of publicly funded preschool programs, make plenty of campaign contributions, and have plenty of political power. Ms. Collins pretends that they don't exist or that they do not care about this issue, when in fact, they do.
June 5, 2013 at 11:38 am
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From an article about a book by a former hedge fund employee:
"The Buy Side" is one of several titles due out this summer pegged to the extensive government insider trading investigation, a list that includes "Circle of Friends" by Charles Gasparino, a broad examination of the crackdown, and "The Billionaire's Apprentice" by Anita Raghavan, an account of the case against the former Goldman director Rajat K. Gupta. (An article about insider trading by Ms. Raghavan, an occasional contributor to The New York Times, is on DealBook.)
June 5, 2013 at 9:36 am
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The Times obsession with race and gender diversity crops up in some unexpected places in the paper.
Restaurant critic Pete Wells, last seen here writing about the "pleasure" of being served by "women" and "others who don't look like men of European descent," gets into it again in a three-star review of a restaurant called Carbone. He writes, "I'm not ready to play along with all of Carbone's casting decisions: currently all the captains, typically the most highly tipped employees, are men."
June 4, 2013 at 2:50 pm
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A Michael Powell column faulting the Archdiocese of New York for laying off teachers at Catholic schools and offering severance of either six months of health insurance or $5,000 twice refers to "University Boulevard" in the Bronx. A Smartertimes reader-community member-watchdog-participant-content co-creator in the Bronx says the correct name of the street is University Avenue. Meanwhile, Mr. Powell doesn't explore what severance the New York Times Company gave to the employees it laid off when the voluntary buyouts it offered earlier this year failed to achieve the full cost reductions necessary. That would be an interesting basis for comparison, at least.
Thanks to reader-participant-community member-watchdog-content co-creator P for sending the tip.
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