Then there were those famous Acorn videos, the ones that showed a “pimp” and his “ho” seeking — and getting — advice from Acron employees in several cities on how best to open a brothel and staff it with underage girls from Central America — and launder their profits while evading taxes. The Times didn’t find that story newsworthy either. Even its public editor, Clark Hoyt, slapped the paper around for that one.
“But for days, as more videos were posted and government authorities rushed to distance themselves from Acorn,” Hoyt wrote, “The Times stood still. Its slow reflexes — closely following its slow response to a controversy that forced the resignation of Van Jones, a White House adviser — suggested that it has trouble dealing with stories arising from the polemical world of talk radio, cable television and partisan blogs. Some stories, lacking facts, never catch fire. But others do, and a newspaper like The Times needs to be alert to them or wind up looking clueless or, worse, partisan itself.”
And now we have another tidbit from the New York Times, more than a tidbit, actually – a story that appeared on page one of its Sunday paper (Jan. 31) – and continued for almost an entire inside page. And like most stories that appear on page one of an important newspaper, this one tells us a lot about what the editors of the New York Times think is important – and a lot about their biases, too. The story ran under the headline, “From High Jinks to Handcuffs” and was about the very same young man, James O’Keefe, who pretended to be a pimp in order to expose Acorn — and who, along with three pals, was arrested and charged with a federal felony of trying to tamper with the phones of U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana.
It is hysterical how the original story, the one that framed the Obama-associated ACORN as corrupt and engaging in illegal activities, essentially didn’t enter the Times’ radar until it was pushed there by criticism from the outside, and yet a few days into the “O’Keefe Landrieu” scandal and we’re getting front page news from the Times.
The interesting difference is that ACORN was caught on tape doing something illegal. O’Keefe has not only maintained his innocence but has not been officially charged with anything and the Justice Department hasn’t acted in any way that would indicate they’re going to charge him.
If it isn’t an inherent bias that’s driving the reporting of O’Keefe’s arrest, then explain how they didn’t mention the ACORN tapes for weeks, and don’t say it wasn’t newsorthy because even their own Public Editor admits that they dropped the ball.
And…
Go…