New York Times

This is not an April Fool's gag. Richard Miniter at Pajamas Media caught the jaw-dropping significance of these two paragraphs in a New York Times report by Qais Mizher out of Basra (HT Instapundit; bolds are mine): Early last week, when the assault started, I happened to be in Diwaniya, another southern city, as part of my work as a reporter and translator for The New York Times. Calling on my…

If only we were all Norwegians, we'd have the high taxes we need and all the welfare we want. But because America is diverse, we selfishly worry that members of other ethnic groups might benefit from our tax dollars. As a result, our taxes aren't high enough and our welfare spending too low. That in a nutshell is Eduardo Porter's thesis in his NY Times column of today, Race and the Social…

In a Wednesday story on food stamp program participation in West Virginia that is still being linked at Drudge this evening, Charleston Daily Mail writer Justin D. Anderson fell into the same trap reporters have been falling into for nearly a year, but later largely made up for it by acknowledging that the program is a supplement, and is not designed, or intended, to pay for all of its…

It is so easy to get sucked in by context-free negativity, isn't it?If you looked at the home page of the New York Times a couple of hours ago, these items you would have among those seen in the (appropriately) far-left column: In This Shiite Battle, a Marked Shift From the Past (article link)Shiite Militias Cling to Swaths of Basra and Stage Raids (article link) Top-of-hour network radio reports…

This week hasn't been a good one for big journalism. First we had news that the Los Angeles Times got tricked into falsely accusing Sean "Diddy" Combs of complicity to murder, now comes news of another paper getting snookered in a desperate quest to be cool.Our story begins in 1987 with 80s pop singer Rick Astley and his song "Never Gonna Give You Up." Back in the day, the song was a worldwide #1…

Cornell University cancer research has been found guilty ... by association that is. A March 26 New York Times story revealed an organization called the Foundation for Lung Cancer: Early Detection, Prevention & Treatment had research financed by a company called the Vector Group (NYSE:VGR), parent of the Liggett Group, a cigarette manufacturer. Even though the research appeared in the New…

In today's "The Heck With Equal Opportunity, We Want Equal Outcome" segment, the New York Times on Sunday accidentally introduced a new concept to readers: mortality socialism.For those unfamiliar -- please count me amongst this woefully ignorant group until a few minutes ago!!! -- the Times feels that something has to be done to make sure that everybody's life expectancies are exactly the same…

Just recently Barack Obama eschewed the dreaded liberal label and said he preferred to be called a progressive, which by most definitions these days means ultra-liberal.The leading Democrat presidential candidate says the "old label" no longer applies and he's trying to be considered more "progressive" and a "pragmatist." Well, the New York Times apparently isn't following marching orders. Not…

Update | 3-26: I wasn't the only one to be impressed by Brooks' column. This morning he was accorded the honor, rare for a Republican pundit, of a solo Today show apperance, and followed it up with a Morning Joe visit.Sometimes you read something so simultaneously insightful and eloquent that you just have to share it with others. That's how I feel about David Brooks' column in today's New York…