Americans learned something interesting about the priorities of the New York Times Tuesday: its editors believe a political candidate pushing an employee three years ago is more important than a candidate calling his campaign rival a Nazi last week.
Such seems apparent from the Times' choice to report California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's alleged employee shoving incident in 2007.
By contrast, the Gray Lady has still not informed readers that Democrat gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown last Tuesday likened Whitman to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
As NewsBusters reported Saturday, Brown said the following to KCBS radio's Doug Sovern:
Brown boasted about his legendary frugality. "I've only spent $200,000 so far. I have 20 million in the bank. I'm saving up for her." It's true - his stay-on-the-sidelines, bare-bones primary run cost him almost nothing, at least in California political terms. But he also fretted about the impact of all those eBay dollars in Whitman's very deep pockets. "You know, by the time she's done with me, two months from now, I'll be a child-molesting..." He let the line trail off. "She'll have people believing whatever she wants about me." Then he went off on a riff I didn't expect.
"It's like Goebbels," referring to Hitler's notorious Minister of Propaganda. "Goebbels invented this kind of propaganda. He took control of the whole world. She wants to be president. That's her ambition, the first woman president. That's what this is all about."
Although a week has passed since this incident, and Brown has admitted having the conversation with Sovern, the Times has STILL not reported his remarks.
Yet, as NewsBusters reported Tuesday, Whitman allegedly pushing an eBay employee THREE YEARS AGO -- an incident that "no one else appears to have witnessed" -- was something the Times devoted almost 1,000 words to citing exclusively unnamed sources:
In addition to noting that the incident involved has no identified witnesses, The Times report specifically tells us that the matter was settled through mediation, and that "the authorities were not involved." Former eBay CEO Whitman has no criminal exposure. The report is a gratuitous, politically-motivated dredge-up of a long-forgotten matter.
The Times's Brad Stone and likely other reporters clearly put many hours of work into the Whitman report. In the process, he or they encouraged and ultimately convinced eBay employees to breach ethics and to violate confidentiality agreements.
The incident's alleged victim still works at eBay and has clearly moved on.
Yes, everyone involved has likely moved on EXCEPT the Times which felt this three-year-old issue was important to share with its readers.
Yet something that just happened last week involving Whitman -- her being compared to a Nazi by Brown -- is STILL not something Times editors feel readers should be aware of.
On a related note, the Times also found Republican Senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina's comments about Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) hair quite newsworthy filing reports on the open mike quip Friday and Sunday.
As such, a Republican allegedly pushing an employee three years ago or commenting about a campaign rival's hair is more important to the Times than a Democrat calling his political foe a Nazi.
Honestly, this is the kind of media bias one would expect in Cuba and Venezuela - NOT America.
