The immortal words of NYTimes chief Bill Keller
NYTimes editor Bill Keller said this in December 2007. Mark these words:
…we are agnostic as to where a story may lead; we do not go into a story with an agenda or a pre-conceived notion. We do not manipulate or hide facts to advance an agenda. We strive to preserve our independence from political and economic interests, including our own advertisers. We do not work in the service of a party, or an industry, or even a country. When there are competing views of a situation, we aim to reflect them as clearly and fairly as we can.”
Now, compare Keller’s rhetoric to reality. Over the weekend, NYTimes public editor Clark Hoyt admitted that the Times killed a story on supposedly non-partisan ACORN’s coordination with Barack Obama’s old friends at Project Vote. Hoyt calls it “The Tip That Didn’t Pan Out.” John Hinderaker at Power Line calls bull:
Times reporter Stephanie Strom was looking into ACORN, and she had a source, a former ACORN employee named Anita Moncrief. Moncrief told Strom that she had evidence of “constant contact” between ACORN’s Project Vote and both the Obama and Clinton campaigns:
On Sept. 7, Moncrief wrote to Strom that she had donor lists from the campaigns of Obama and Hillary Clinton and that there had been “constant contact” between the campaigns and Project Vote, an Acorn affiliate whose tax-exempt status forbids it to engage in partisan politics. Moncrief said she had withheld that information earlier but was disclosing it now that the conservative columnist Michelle Malkin was “all over it.”
“I am sorry,” she wrote, “but I believe in Obama and did not want to help the Republicans.”
A key part of Moncrief’s story was that the Obama campaign had furnished ACORN with lists of maxed-out donors so that ACORN could mine them for contributions. In fact, Moncrief provided the Times reporter, Strom, with such a list that ACORN allegedly obtained from the Obama campaign. Hoyt does not dispute that this story, if true, was evidence of violation of the campaign finance laws.
So why did the Times pull the plug on Strom’s ongoing investigation? The story became public because a Republican lawyer named Heather Heidelbaugh testified, apparently based on information she got from Anita Moncrief, that the Times had been working on an Obama-ACORN story but that “Ms. Strom reported to Ms. Moncrief that her editors at The New York Times wanted her to kill the story because, and I quote, ‘it was a game-changer.’” Hoyt undertakes to show that this charge was false.
He admits, though, that Strom’s editor, Suzanne Daley, “called a halt to Strom’s pursuit of the Obama angle.” So the Times did kill the investigation and any further reporting.
Investigative reporter Matthew Vadum, who has done invaluable work on ACORN for years, weighs in at the American Spectator:
Acknowledging what the blogosphere has known for weeks, the New York Times finally went on record to admit that just before last Election Day it killed a politically sensitive news story involving corruption allegations that might have made the Obama campaign look bad.
But the admission on Sunday, which came seven months after NYT staff reporter Stephanie Strom’s reporting about possibly illegal coordination between the Obama campaign and ACORN last year, took the form of a snarky column from Clark Hoyt, the Old Gray Lady’s “public editor.” Hoyt used the word “nonsense” to describe the allegations of impropriety leveled against ACORN and the Obama campaign…
…he aborted story that gave rise to the Obama/ACORN controversy centers around information provided by Anita MonCrief, a former ACORN employee whom Hoyt acknowledges “fed information to Stephanie Strom of The Times for several articles on troubles within the group.” Apparently the information MonCrief provided was good.
We know this because Strom broke a number of important stories about ACORN and surely much of the information she used came from her trusted source Anita MonCrief. In July she reported that Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, embezzled nearly $1 million from the group. She also reported that ACORN management covered up the embezzlement for eight years, withholding information even from ACORN’s national board.
The next month Strom reported that Tides Foundation founder Drummond Pike, a comrade-in-arms of liberal philanthropist George Soros, had personally covered what remained of Wade Rathke’s debt (the embezzler had agreed to a slow-as-molasses repayment plan that would have kept him in debt well into old age).
In September Strom reported on two ACORN national board members’ lawsuit aimed at forcing ACORN to provide financial documents regarding the embezzlement.
She followed up the next month with a story on ACORN’s efforts to sever its remaining ties with its founder. (Strom reported that Wade Rathke resigned as chief organizer of ACORN. In fact, Rathke was fired, as shown in the ACORN national board’s minutes of June 20, 2008, available at page 11 of the linked PDF file.)
The same month Strom wrote about an internal memo written by ACORN’s lawyer that alerted the group to potential legal problems related to its organizational structure.
But apparently MonCrief’s information was suddenly no good when it might have embarrassed the Obama campaign.
Let me repeat Bill Keller’s words:
…we are agnostic as to where a story may lead; we do not go into a story with an agenda or a pre-conceived notion. We do not manipulate or hide facts to advance an agenda. We strive to preserve our independence from political and economic interests, including our own advertisers. We do not work in the service of a party, or an industry, or even a country. When there are competing views of a situation, we aim to reflect them as clearly and fairly as we can.”
“We do not manipulate or die facts to advance an agenda?” The Times suppressed the truth about ObamACORN by its own weasel-worded admission.
“Agnostic as to where a story may lead?” The cult worshipers at the Times are “enchanted” with the man in the White House.
“Independence from political and economic interests?” The Times has sold $2 million worth of Obama-themed merchandise, according to NYTimes reporter Jennifer 8 Lee, who boasted that “Obama is good for the bottom line.”
Stick a pin in Bill Keller’s self-delusional thought and pop it. Boop.
Photoshop credit: Leo Alberti
***
In related fishwrap follies, MoDo makes excuses for journalistic shoplifting that she would be first to mock mercilessly if, say, Bill Kristol tried to get away with them.
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Trackbacks
- Yep: The NYTs Spiked The Obama/Acorn Story « Nice Deb
- Founding Bloggers
- More Proof Regarding Media Bias « Vets On The Watch
- Feeling blogged out? UPDATED | The Anchoress
- Bloodthirsty Liberal » All the News That’s Fit to Bury Lest it Imperil the Ascension of His Oneness
- NYT Never Heard of ACORN or Pelosi’s CIA Dispute « Peace and Freedom Promises
- New York Times finally comes out of the closet - admits to killing big Obama/Acorn story before election day | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- Why are more Americans Pro-Life than Pro-Choice? Barack Obama « Jim Blazsik
- MSM chooses NOT to Print a Potentially Negative Article About Then-Candidate Obama and ACORN | Pirates! Man Your Women!
- BizzyBlog » Lucid Links (051909, Morning)
- ACORN & Journalism Corruption… NY Times Killed Pre-Election Exposé of ACORN to Hide Obama’s Ties from Voters « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Michelle Malkin » All the news that’s fit to suppress
- NY Times/ACORN Investigation Continues — What Stephanie Strom Knew about Obama Before Election « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Michelle Malkin » Document drop: The ObamACORN-Project Vote-NYTimes axis cont’d.
- Stop ACORN from Getting Billions from Porkulus Bill: Sign Rep. Bachmann’s Petition — ‘Taxpayer Protection and Anti-Fraud Act’ « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- An ACORN by Any Other Name - Smart Girl Nation
- Stacking the Deck: Mental Manipulation of the Public — Leftist Mainstream Media & Politicians’ Use of Non-Stop Bias Tactics « Frugal Café Blog Zone
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Categories: ACORN Watch, New York Times
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What a load of garbage from the birdcage bottom’s favorite “news” group!
Bill Keller of Broken-Stephen-whatever Glass? If you can’t believe a liar and a fool who can you believe? When Obama is on TV Bill Keller brakes into song “Some Enchanted Evening” followed by ….let’s not get too graphic.
Can you roast ACORNS on an open fire?
Ah, well, it really doesn’t matter what the Slimes editor says. Fact of the matter is, most birds can’t read anyhow, and fish really don’t care what they’re wrapped in.
When is the Attorney General going to investigate this illegal collaboration?
—crickets—
The MSM is like the politicians they love. If their lips are moving they are lying. If the pen is mightier than the sword, it should be used to dispense the truth and not the garbage they are putting out.
ACORN will never be investigated as long as Obama is in charge.
There is cure for this. Instead of stating policy and hiring nothing but left-wing liberals as reporters, how about keeping the policy and hiring a “rich tapestry of diversity” among its political leanings of reporter? Wouldn’t that eliminate the echo chamber? The competing opinions and unavoidable peer pressure would serve to temper the radicalism organically.
Another example where intelligent self-regulation is more efficient than bloated bureaucracy or intrusive policing. Of course, it doesn’t matter if the true intent of a real newspaper is to be blatantly partisan.
Yeah, I remember how “agnostic” and “clear and fair” they were when they were all over the story of Bush’s DUI like a cheap suit. That story broke less than a week before election day, of course.
A “rich tapestry of diversity” is just code-speak for committed marxists. Anyone else can bug off,
RedDog: that is not what I was referring to. Re-read it but with your sense of humor turned on this time.
Glenn Beck is all over this acorn thing. He will have more to say on his show today on Fox. I don’t think bho will allow any action against acorn though. He needs their money (we taxpayers give them) and votes (alive or dead).
L
This is (yet another) smoking gun in the case against the MSM bias and political motivation in “reporting.” Of course, we can expect it to be taken seriously mostly only within the vast right-wing conspiracy. Obama nation — and its many MSM house organs — has its own separate reality.
But as for the NYT, itself…let the bankruptcy proceedings begin. (Too bad that there isn’t also a procedure to oversee ~moral~ bankruptcy.)
Agnostic … the Latin equivalent is ignoramus, Maybe he should have used the latter.
I wonder if Bill Keller also thinks that The New York Slimes is selling like hot cakes and turning a huge profit, too.
In his book, A Slobbering Love Affair, Bernie Goldberg said that before the election he himself did some checking. Ten days before the election the Slimes ran 14 stories about Sarah Palins wardrobe, but 2 stories about Bill Ayers.
Yeah right!
I’m sorry, I just can’t believe the Obama campaign turned names over to ACORN just because they’d maxed out on contributions. There’s too much evidence that they just started using fake names and kept right on kicking in their $25 checks.
“Only news that fits our views.”
Newspapers are dying.
But nobody…no other force…is killing them.
They have been committing suicide for decades.
Their poison is just beginning to show its final, fatal effects.
Same with the “news” magazines.
I used to be a faithful reader of National Geographic and Popular Science…
until they became flacks and megaphones for Gorebal Warming, some decades ago.
Wait, so you’re telling me that their current business model of political advocacy for one candidate by omission of facts and tamping down another campaign with unproven allegations isn’t working?
Destined to FAIL.
NYT:
What – a NYT reporter sympathetic to a Democrat presidential candidate? Never! The NYT is the epitome of objective reporting *cough, cough* and unbiased investigation (coughing now uncontrollable)
Oh, I just love fairy tales! It couldn’t have been the `08 Presidential Election that Strom had on her mind eight months ago, could it?
Oh please, Uncle Hoyt, next time tell us the one about Goldie Locks and the Three Bars, pretty please?!
Keller’s disclaimer reminds me of the the disclaimers put out by escort services. “This is not an offer of prostitution. Money exchanged is for time and companionship only.” As Groucho said, “Who do believe, me or your own eyes?”
The NYT, the paper of choice for outhouses all across the heartland!
And the NYT continues to sink beneath the waves. They need to stop punching holes in their own hull!
And when the organs of the MSM tank for an ideology…
we loose an important safeguard of our Republic.
We can see the results daily…
I’m with you on that, now their t.v. programs are infiltrated with that Gorbal baloney. All the cable networks owned by Discovery are in the bag for Gorbal Bull…they have some very informative shows at times then start with the climate change and how it is effecting the animals and my remote goes to work. It really is a shame how these once respected, prestigious organizations can’t be believed anymore. If they’ll lie about the climate change, what else will they lie about? Lost their credibility with me.
So birds can not read? Learn something everyday. They do seem to make a lot of editorial markings in a day though.
Not one time has the post-9/11 heroism of more than 4,000 recipients of our military’s six highest medals for valor appeared on the front page of the NY Times.
Conversely, articles and/or photographs about Abu Ghraib have appeared on their front page 43 times. While Cindy Sheehan running down our country has made in there 15 times, not once within more than 155 articles within the bowels of the Old Grey Rag has either a “reporter” or pundit fully told Casey Sheehan’s story.
That’s the most of the NYT that I have read in years outside of a headline I might glance at at a news stand or someone accross on the subway. As I ask those next to me on a subway or bar reading that rag, “So, what’s in Pravda today?”. Read on my way into work for years until I finally felt I was just reading the ramblings of som NYU/Columbia Sophmore. Total waste of time and, more importantly, MONEY. Stop giving them any air time. Don’t even view their WEB site. Help them sink into oblivion. I find less and less people reading that bird cage lining, even here in NYC. The TIMES are a changin’. The Crazy, Old Grey Lady indeed. As a side note, I have met Keller several times. He is what you would expect him to be. Arrogent, obnoxious, pompous, and attempts at charming. And a committed Leftist.
“Destined to
FAILbe bailed out”Watch Obama’s speech at the White House Correspondants’ Dinner. In it he says that newspapers must be part of the vibrant American media landascape. It was a promise to protect them.
I think that would signal even a lot of liberals that we had gone too far down the road to fascism.
It will be interesting to see if it is actually done.
The NYTimes does not have a perfect record on accuracy, but I trust them a heck of a lot more than the right wing noise machine that brought us WMD in Iraq and told us that Terry Schiavo was just taking a nap.
Ummm…
That included the NYT, dummy.
Because it was both true, and…
it was the projection that Saddam wanted the world to have.
Geez! What is it going to take to be finally rid of the fishwrap of record, a stake through the heart? And as much as I would like to see them finally lose enough money to disappear, I fear that it will become a totally taxpayer funded entity before the left lets that happen.
…and Terry Schiavo starved to death in her sleep.
MM really shows her strength of character and liberty-loving instinct in letting you pollute this forum, lgm.
If I were her, I’d squash you like the cockroach that you are. But that’s just me. My instinct is to close with the enemy and, well, finish them off. Especially when they are cockroaches.
The Clark Hoyt coverup is not the only scandal at the NY Times today. Maureen Dowd got caught redhanded stealing a whole paragraph from Josh Marshall’s blog. Dowd tried to pass it off as her own writing. The Times reluctantly had to fess up to Dowd’s theft and said only that Dowd did not “attribute” the paragraph to Marshall. The Times sent out the superannuated Frank Rich to do damage control on the Imus program. Rich actually tried to explain it all away for his BFF by saying that columnists read hundreds of stories on the internet and don’t always realize that they might be “borrowing” from somebody else. Yeah, right Frank! Nice try to coverup for your BFF. If Walter Williams had ever borrowed from another conservative, does anyone think Mr. Rich would be so charitable in his explanations? I doubt it. Dowd, with her usual dignity, blamed it all on a “friend” who supposedly did not tell her that the paragraph belonged to Marshall. So next time Dowd makes snotty remarks about “Rummy” and “Poppy” and tries to pscyhoanalyze George W. Bush, we will all know that Dowd is a fraud.
This NY Times story is shaking my belief in them. Ok not.
Coupled with being a demonstrated thief and liar….
Or, as we know them, LEFTIST.
“I didn’t steal it from a blog, I stole it from a friend! Therefore it is my own original thinking.”
But it’s ok as long as she serves The Collective.
Not even really good legs…
look good goose-stepping.
More evidence of what we already knew. The media are in the tank for one side only. But this does support more than what we’ve been saying. From now on we should stop referring to media bias and start calling it what it is: Corruption.
In the old media business, that would be called a SPIKE, or to spike a story.
And to think tha LGM fills young, pliable minds with such unadulterated nonsense and we pay for it. Both monetarily and we have to re-train these idiots for real work when they graduate. Way to go you moron.
I snorted.
Regarding Maureen Dowd, she wrote that George W. Bush could not think for himself but allowed Dick Cheney to think for him. Now that Ms. Dowd’s plaigiarism has been outed, we know that it is Ms. Dowd who does not think for herself. She just find liberal blogs and tries to pass it all off as her own work. At least Jason Blair wrote interesting fiction.
Re: the NYT;
I enjoy the golf tips and, bridge column.
Hmmmmm, so tell us, lgm, are Clinton, Rodham, Gore, Kerry, the scores of other liberal politician, and every intelligence service in the western world, all of whom are ON THE RECORD as having said they believe Saddam had WMD part of the right wing noise machine?
Facts are just so damned inconvenient, aren’t they?
Excellent point! I’ve no recollection of LGM having ever addressed that fact, and it looks doubtful that he ever will -
Dear American Voter. Ignorance can be fixed, stupid is forever.