The New York Times focuses on the surge in homicides, publishing a front-page news article that jumps to two full pages inside. The Times highlights what it calls "a surge in homicides that has swept across the country," reporting that "in many large cities — including Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia — the number of homicides this year is on track to surpass last year." The Times just can't figure out what might be behind this: "In dozens of interviews, criminologists, city and state officials and people close to murder victims could not name a single, direct cause of the spike in homicides, and said that it could take years of data collection before the phenomenon is fully understood." Still, it could be "the continued destabilizing effects of the coronavirus pandemic."
Somewhat remarkably, the Times manages to cover this phenomenon without any mention of the Black Lives Matter protests against police. Some police and conservative politicians have linked the rise in crime to those protests.
Also interesting: "A spike in drug use plagued New Mexico, like the rest of the United States, as Covid-19 spread. There were a record 766 overdoses in 2020, a 54 percent jump from 2016, according to a report by the state legislature's Finance Committee. Nationwide, more than 93,000 overdose deaths were reported in 2020, a record number and a 30 percent increase from 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." Well, that is interesting on two fronts. First, the reference to drug use as a "plague" contradicts much other New York Times coverage that cheers on drug use: "In the case of psychedelics, decriminalizing these powerful compounds is only the first step in a process of figuring out how best to safely weave their use into our society. The main model we have for resocializing a formerly illicit drug is the legalization of cannabis." Second, to read the Times, drug overdoses are all directly the consequence of the Sackler family's marketing practices at Purdue Pharma. Remarkably, the drug problems are getting worse notwithstanding the Justice Department's settlement with Purdue Pharma and with members of the Sackler family. If the plague of drug use gets worse even though the Sacklers are out of the business, how will the Times keep defending the idea that it's all their fault?
Anyway, the blind spots in Times coverage of this are mildly amusing, though doubtless less so for families of the homicide victims or for members of the Sackler family.