An article in the international section of today's New York Times reports on Condoleezza Rice's trip to Russia. "The trip meant that Ms. Rice, and not the secretary of state, was the first top Bush foreign policy official to visit Moscow, whose opposition to a missile shield is a critical obstacle to be navigated," the Times reports, going on at length about how Ms. Rice has outmaneuvered General Powell. A simpler explanation for Ms. Rice's trip to Russia may be that she's a Russia specialist who is fluent in Russian, wrote her doctoral dissertation on Russia, and dealt with Russian issues on the National Security Council during the administration of George Herbert Walker Bush. It's strange for the Times not to mention this. To mention it might have undercut the article's premise about the "surprising" role that Ms. Rice has assumed -- an "ascendancy," the article claims. But it would have been better journalism to deal straight-on with the information that undercut the theory, rather than simply omitting the information as the Times did in this case. Contrary to the Times's claim, it would have been "surprising" if Mr. Bush hadn't sent Ms. Rice to Russia, given her background.
Jew, Jew: A front-page article in today's New York Times remembers the Crown Heights riot. The Times reports that "Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old Hasidic scholar from Australia, was fatally stabbed three hours later, caught by a mob racing through the streets shouting, 'Jew, Jew.'"
"Jew, Jew," is a strangely sanitized version of what the mob was shouting. According to the court documents filed by federal prosecutors in the case stemming from the riot, one of the mob shouted, "There's a Jew; get the Jew." According to the memoir of the man who was executive editor of the Times during the riot, Max Frankel, the cry was "Kill the Jews!" How the Times news department turns this into "Jew, Jew," is a puzzlement.
Kamp Kinderland: The City section of today's New York Times carries an affectionate feature on a Stalinist summer camp in Tolland, Massachusetts. It's enough to make one wonder whether the Times coverage of New York City is really devoted to New York City (in which case, why write about a camp in Massachusetts?) -- or whether it is devoted to the advancement of Communism, in which case, the article makes perfect sense.
Missing Wedding: The Sunday Styles section of today's New York Times inexplicably omits one of the most important social events of the weekend, the wedding last night of Ellen Sarah Umansky and David Alexander Gutman. Ms. Umansky is one of the most promising writers of her generation and Dr. Gutman one of the most distinguished young psychiatrists in the city, and it's just a gaping hole in the Times wedding coverage that they missed the news of the marriage.