New York Times

When University of California at Santa Barbara professor Nelson Lichtenstein came onto CNBC to discuss bribery allegations against Wal-Mart De Mexico (a subsidiary of Wal-Mart), he got more than he bargained for.

Kenneth Langone, an investor who helped found Home Depot, had joined Maria Bartiromo for the full hour of “Closing Bell” on Dec. 18. Langone, who is also the CEO of Geeknet and has a net worth of $1.6 billion, challenged Lichtenstein fiercely, demanding to hear facts from him. When he found out the news source Lichtenstein was citing as proof, Langone took a jab at The New York Times as well.

Lichtenstein argued that the accusations against Wal-Mart were just the “tip of the iceberg” of a “larger pattern for the company” of the company moving into an area of finding local ways of doing things and imposing “its own business model, regardless, on these countries and on the communities there.” (See CNBC video)

• Thirteen Catholic church abuse articles made the front page; just one BBC piece did
• Lead sentence linked Pope to scandals 20 times; linked new Times boss to BBC scandals just once.

It’s a horrifying and tragically familiar story: A beloved and trusted institution is rocked by allegations of sexual abuse of minors over many years. Intrepid reporters dig to learn how the crimes could have gone on so for so long, who knew about them, and if officials kept it quiet. Story after newspaper story leads with speculation that corruption may be systemic and the cover-up may go all the way to the man at the top.

UPDATE #2 - ALSO BELOW THE FOLD.

UPDATE BELOW THE FOLD - THE ESTEEMED MR. CALDERONE RESPONDS.

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CORRECTION: I said the Washington Post was on the hook twice on Calderone's list.  H/t to NBer Dean who pointed out it's three - #s 2, 7 & 10.  A thousand apologies, and thanks to The Man from the People's Republic of Maryland.

Politico's staff reporter Michael Calderone has compiled his list of his top ten Media Blunders of 2009.

I for one think he did a fully fair and more than fairly good job of it. Media Research Center Director of Media Analysis Tim Graham for two thinks so as well.

On his list were the likes of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, the New York Times's Maureen Dowd and CNN. And the Washington Post - twice. Targets all for which you'll find a rich environment here on NewsBusters. And he slammed the traditional media in totality for remaining dockside while the Good Ships ACORN and Van Jones set sail on alternative media seas. He hailed the Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck and website mogul Andrew Breitbart by name for captaining those stories when the Jurassic Press stood down.

Calderone clips Fox News for what he calls their "Tea Party Trifecta," but he's hardly bashing meritlessly here either. An FNC producer was caught on tape rallying a Tea Party crowd. That is quite a bit over the top. And Sean Hannity did run B-roll from the wrong rally - a more populous one - and was forced to apologize to the world generally and Jon Stewart particularly.

Though Hannity's probably was an honest mistake. The Pulitzer-winning Dowd's excuse for "borrowing" a paragraph from the liberal website Talking Points Memo - that a "friend" had sent it to her - bends the credibility curve downward quite a bit.

Someone at Politico worn-out horsed (See: Definition #3) Calderone on the photograph composite accompanying his article, however. (Said snapshots appear below the fold.) We don't think Calderone chooses what goes with his pieces. Perhaps he should.

The New York Times Company is burning full blast towards oblivion and if they don't figure out a way to pull out of their death spiral soon it won't be pretty. In fact, in the first quarter of 2009 the Times lost an incredible $74.5 million which was far far beyond what analysts had predicted. Here's how the Times describes it's own deterioration:

The New York Times Company reported a first-quarter loss of $74.5 million on Tuesday, compared with a loss of $335,000 in the period a year ago, as it joined the roster of newspaper companies recording the steepest advertising declines in generations.

Advertising revenue at the company’s publishing segment fell 28.4 percent in the quarter, including an 8 percent decline in Internet advertising at the News Media Group.

[...]

The Times Company’s total revenue of $609 million, down 18.6 percent from $747.9 million in the first quarter a year ago, fell more than $20 million short of analysts’ projections.

Of course this abysmal performance is already being spun by the Times itself and the Associated Press as nothing more than a result of a shift in marketing and the poor economy:

The Associated Press is reporting that the lobbyist the New York Times insinuated had an affair with John McCain (here is some background information on the NYT piece) has filed suit against the paper to the tune of $27 million:

A Washington lobbyist sued The New York Times for $27 million Tuesday over an article that she says gave the false impression she had an affair with Sen. John McCain in 1999. 

Vicki L. Iseman filed the defamation suit in U.S. District Court in Richmond. It also names as defendants the Times' executive editor, its Washington bureau chief and four reporters.

Based solely on 8-year old rumors and gossip the paper that endorsed him now throws slime on his reputation. Of course McCain denies the New York Times-published allegations vehemently. See video of McCain's denial here.

There are actually no direct allegations of any sexual scandal here, and mostly attacks his ethics on dealing with lobyists. The allegations are paper thin, and should be easy enough to brush off. Its curious to me though, why the NY Times ignored the allegations against John Edwards. The allegations have no meat, but they decided it would be fit to be front page above the fold. Anonymous sources delivering nothing of substance is just irresponsible.

Captain Ed:

One of the aspects of anthropogenic global warming that typically gets ignored by America's green press is that solutions being offered to solve this as yet unproven problem are untested and might in the end create other financial and/or environmental maladies in the future.

On Sunday, a New York Times editorial surprisingly went after one of the darlings of the climate alarmism crowd, the compact fluorescent light bulb, for this very reason.

Hold on to your seats, ladies and gentlemen, for the Times offered some inconvenient truths about this supposed environmental panacea that folks like Nobel Laureate Al Gore and his sycophantic devotees work tirelessly to hide from you (emphasis added):

You may have heard of "Hentish," the dog in The New York Times that was shot and killed by a Blackwater security guard earlier this week. However in the media's over zealous attempt to crucify Blackwater USA they left out a surprisingly telling piece about some of the dogs that were harbored at the Times compound in Baghdad.

The New York Post reported yesterday that these dogs had already attacked people before, including Eason Jordan who runs the blog IraqSlogger.com, and is a former CNN chief news executive.

"Eason's encounter, revealed on his blog yesterday, involved a dog named Scratch and left him with ‘three deep gashes in my right hand, sending blood spewing in all directions,'" the Post story said.

Eason's blog post also revealed other canine nightmares:

How often have you heard folks in the media, and climate alarmists such as Nobel Laureate Al Gore, state unequivocally that the global warming debate is over?

Too many to count, yes?

On the flipside, did you ever think you'd see a major media report suggesting the environmental movement, including global warming alarmism, was "premised on a 'politics of fear'?"

Well, on Wednesday, Sewell Chan posted a rather lengthy piece at the New York Times City Room blog concerning an exceptionally provocative discussion about environmental politics that occurred Tuesday evening at the New York Public Library.

Frankly, readers are going to be shocked by some of the article's contents, especially the astounding opening paragraph (emphasis added throughout):

Is the New York Times lobbying to eliminate the term "illegal immigrant" because, in its view, this designation is both politically incorrect and racist?

Such appears to be the case judging from an editorial written by Lawrence Downes and published Sunday.

Downes began (emphasis added throughout, h/t Hot Air):