An editorial in this morning's New York Times about plans for Governors Island in New York Harbor gives a good indication of how the newspaper feels about cars. The editorial speaks of two historic fortresses that would be preserved on the island, and then it says, "The rest of the island, which is a seven-minute ferry ride from Manhattan, would revert to the state and could then be developed, possibly in accord with preliminary plans for parks, tennis courts, museums, motels and a conference center, blissfully free of private automobiles."
Also "blissfully free of private automobiles," if the Times gets its way, would be a football stadium on the West Side of Manhattan. An editorial in today's Times about that proposal takes the position that, "to avoid traffic congestion and air pollution, the project has to be served primarily by mass transit rather than automobiles."
Well, for a newspaper whose Sunday magazine is fat with ads from Lexus, Mercedes and BMW, and whose weekend classified sections are fat with ads from auto dealerships, this is a strange position. If the Times really feels this way about automobiles, maybe it should do what it did with cigarettes and announce that it will refuse the advertising on principle. Then again, perhaps what really bothers the Times editorialists aren't automobiles, but "private" automobiles. Maybe it's not driving that the Times objects to, but private ownership of them, which, after all, has a whiff of -- perish the thought -- capitalism.
Lewis and Indyk: A news story in the international section of this morning's New York Times reports on reaction to the suspension of the security clearance of Martin Indyk, America's ambassador to Israel. Samuel Lewis is quoted strongly defending Mr. Indyk against charges that he violated security regulations, saying, "there are scores of us, hundreds of us who have done similar things because there is no other way to do your job." Mr. Lewis is identified by the Times only as America's "ambassador to Israel from 1977 to 1985." But in fact, Mr. Lewis was a member of the board of advisers of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy when Mr. Indyk was the institute's executive director. He later served on the staff of the institute, which Mr. Indyk founded. Including those facts in the Times article would have been helpful to readers evaluating the credibility of Mr. Lewis's defense of Mr. Indyk.