Kalb to NYT Executive Editor Keller: Why Do You Allow Left-Wing Views in Your News Stories?
New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller was challenged Monday night on the paper’s commitment to objectivity, especially concerning opinionizing in front-page articles, in an appearance televised on C-Span, before an audience at George Washington University. About 26 minutes into the wide-ranging journalism discussion, moderator Marvin Kalb challenged Keller.
Kalb: “On the Times you have news and then you’ve got opinion. Now there should be a wall between the two. Your ombudsman Arthur Brisbane says, and I quote, ‘the news pages are laced with analytical and opinion pieces that work against the premise that the news is just the news, unquote. Many conservatives as you well know, criticize the Times as being a liberal, left-wing newspaper, and that those views get into the news part of your newspaper. Why do you allow this to happen?”
Keller: “We don’t allow it to happen. I mean--”
Kalb: “But it happens almost every day.”
Keller: “According to Art Brisbane or according to you?”
Kalb: “No, well, according to people who have read the Times for many many years. There’s more, what I’m getting at here Bill, is that there’s more analysis dipping into commentary and the editorial side of reporting than a straight hard news story.”
Kalb is referring to Brisbane's January 9 column, where he said of a decision to put David Leonhardt's liberal economic analysis on the front page:
It was The Times’s decision to place it on Page 1 that posed the difficulty, sending the message that The Times’s take on health care is synonymous with Mr. Leonhardt’s, which some see as progressive or liberal.
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Comments
Of course
Submitted by JoeA101010 on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 5:57pm.
As I tell anyone who will listen, this is no surprise. The NYT, NBC, CBS, Wash. Post, etc., are no different than the Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Mother Jones, The Nation and other openly left-wing outlets. Keller should have simply said "We do this because we are a left-wing newspaper."
Would anyone be surprised to visit Media Matters and find an ultra-left wing bias? Of course not. Same with the NYT. It is just who they are. The only difference now is that they and the others are now open about it.
Political Relativity
Submitted by JustAl on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 6:18pm.
If someone is on the extreme left, then, of course, everyone else is to the right. H**l, to this guy the Hildabeast is a "centrist".
Hola Senor Keller....
Submitted by jdripper on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 6:19pm.
The New York Times has not been paying their loan as agreed to the Mexican billionaire, Carlos Helu.
Jack
Poor Marvin
Submitted by justbob223 on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 6:22pm.
I'm sure he'll find himself in trouble for this.
Kalb
Submitted by jaywl on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 7:33pm.
In his time at CBS and NBC Kalb, in my years past opinion as I remember it now, was a left leaning reporter but one respected and honest. Of course in the days of VietNam and Watergate I thought most reporters were lefties (still do with better reason). Most were professionals those days but it is always hard to keep peronal bias out of your voice, expressions, and even choices of assignment and copy. He apparently still is a professional.
"Kalb to NYT Executive Editor
Submitted by Cowboy on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 9:19pm.
"Kalb to NYT Executive Editor Keller: Why Do You Allow Left-Wing Views in Your News Stories?"
Because just reporting the news doesn't support their agenda...
"...sending the message that
Submitted by Chris Norman on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 10:29pm.
"...sending the message that The Times’s take on health care is synonymous with Mr. Leonhardt’s, which some see as progressive or liberal"
Wow. They just can't ever come out and say the words "is liberal", can they? They have to tip-toe around the obvious.
Oh, what to do?
Submitted by Twig1976 on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 11:49pm.
If the NYT reported any story without the loony left slant, the ABCCBSNBC evening newscasts would be nothing but 30 minutes of dead air. I guess Katie could give us the school lunch report. It might just improve her ratings.
NYT Bias
Submitted by truckinmann on Sat, 02/05/2011 - 3:43am.
The NYT (News Yank & Twist) has always been a lefty newspaper. The bias hasn't just been creeping in lately. They are just far more blatant about it these days because they see NBC and MSNBC and all the other mainstream lefty news networks doing it. They figure at some point the Obama administration will come in and prop them up when they can no longer get enough readers to even come close to breaking even. Sad thing is Obama probably will. Obama may just appoint the owner of the NYT to some "czar" post that he makes up like he did with "I mmelt--(when I see Obama) of G.E. after the coverage he had NBC and their bastard offspring MSNBC give the leftist Democrat-socialist-union of wannabe Marxist, party. Obama should make him the czar of stopping donkey farts to combat global warming (wait it's cold as Hillary with Bill during the Lewinsky affair) er... make that "climate change". (yeah that sounds good, and we can throw more borrowed billions at our liberal buddy scientists to read thermometers!) I know the NYT is owned by a trust, that makes it even better for Obama because he can "Spread the wealth around" (Just a wondering thought here... I'm pretty sure when Obama said he wanter to "spread the wealth around" people thought he meant from the rich to the poor and middle class, not from the middle class to the rich like he currently is doing.) Maybe make him czar of telling leaders of other countries when they should step down from their leadership position. How about czar of implementing Sharia law in the USA? The opportunities are endless...