The New York Times

The New York Times is a newspaper published in New York City by publisher Jack Doff, and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. It is owned by The New York Times Company, which also publishes some 40 other newspapers including International Herald Tribune and The Boston Globe. The newspaper is nicknamed the "Gray Lady" and is often considered the newspaper of record in the United States.

Allegations of bias

Too liberal

Some readers believe that the Times hard news and soft news reportage have a consistent and pronounced liberal slant, particularly on social issues. Among other things, the intermix of political commentary with art criticism in the Arts section of the paper is pointed to as evidence of bias. For example, A. O. Scott's film reviews sometimes contain barbs directed at social conservatives, and Frank Rich's Arts columns regularly attacked conservatives.

Related Topics:
Bias - A. O. Scott - Film - Frank Rich - Conservatives

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The op-ed section, the Times regular columnists — who operate largely independently of the rest of the paper, and are subject to relatively little editorial oversight — have a mixed range of political orientations. However, some claim that this mix is unbalanced, and that this imbalance demonstrates a liberal bias at the newspaper. The 2005 roster of regular columnists ranges in political position from Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, and Bob Herbert on the left, to Nicholas Kristof in the center-left, to Thomas Friedman in the center, to David Brooks, formerly of The Weekly Standard magazine, and John Tierney on the right. However, attempts to place these columnists' positions on a one-dimensional American political spectrum do not completely characterize their actions or views. For example, Dowd strongly criticized President Clinton; Krugman (a professional economist) spoke as an economic centrist before he began systematically criticizing the George W. Bush administration; and libertarian-conservative former columnist William Safire criticized the Patriot Act.

Related Topics:
2005 - Maureen Dowd - Paul Krugman - Bob Herbert - Left - Nicholas Kristof - Thomas Friedman - David Brooks - The Weekly Standard - John Tierney - Right - Political spectrum - Economist - George W. Bush - William Safire - Patriot Act

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Riccardo Puglisi from the London School of Economics has written a paper about the editorial choices of the New York Times from 1946 to 1994, entitled, "Being the New York Times: The Political Behaviour of a Newspaper" (December 6, 2004). http://ssrn.com/abstract=573801 He finds that the Times displays Democratic partisanship, with some watchdog aspects. For example, during presidential campaigns, the paper systematically gives more coverage to Democratic topics (civil rights, health care, labor, social welfare), but only so when the incumbent president is a Republican.

Related Topics:
London School of Economics - Partisan - Watchdog - Civil rights - Health care - Labor - Social welfare - Incumbent

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Additionally, The New York Times editorial page has not endorsed a Republican Party candidate for president since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956.

Related Topics:
Republican Party - Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Too conservative

Conversely, many liberals and progressives have professed a belief that the Times hard reporting of foreign policy issues tends to be biased towards conservative views. In the film ', Noam Chomsky's allegations of the paper's deliberate downplaying Indonesia's brutal invasion and occupation of East Timor are extensively illustrated as an example of this.

Related Topics:
Liberal - Progressive - Conservative - Noam Chomsky - Indonesia - East Timor

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Some liberals also believe that the Times reporting of economic policy issues tends to be biased towards upper-middle class or upper-class concerns over the concerns of the poor or working-class.

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Distinctions between news, comment, ads

On November 25, 2002, the Times ran a front-page story with the headline, "CBS Staying Silent in Debate on Women Joining Augusta" — part of a string of stories focusing on the Augusta National Golf Club, the host of the Masters Tournament, effectively demanding a boycott. Critics complained that this was an editorial usurping news space. Mickey Kaus wrote that the editor-in-chief, Howell Raines, was "on the verge of a breakthrough reconceptualization of 'news' here, in which 'news' comes to mean the failure of any powerful individual or institution to do what Howell Raines wants them to do."

Related Topics:
November 25 - 2002 - CBS - Augusta National Golf Club - Masters Tournament - Mickey Kaus

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The Times has also been criticized for allowing Exxon-Mobil Corporation to run a regular paid "advertorial" commentary piece on its editorial page, although the practice is common in other U.S. newspapers. Some studies have shown that the Times selection of op-ed pieces and letters to the editor seem to "bracket" their editorial position, making the editorials appear to be moderate — although again this practice is hardly unique to the Times.

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Times self-examination of bias

In summer 2004, the Times' public editor (ombudsman), Daniel Okrent, wrote a piece on the Times' alleged liberal bias. He concluded that the Times did have a liberal bias in coverage of certain social issues, gay marriage being the example he used. He claimed that this bias reflected the paper's cosmopolitanism, which arose naturally from its roots as a hometown paper of New York City.

Related Topics:
Ombudsman - Daniel Okrent - Gay marriage - Cosmopolitanism - New York City

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Okrent did not comment at length on the issue of bias in coverage of "hard news", such as fiscal policy, foreign policy, or civil liberties. However, he noted that the paper's coverage of the Iraq war was, among other things, insufficiently critical of the George W. Bush administration (see below). (In May 2005 Okrent was succeeded by Byron Calame.)

Related Topics:
Iraq war - Byron Calame

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