New York Times, 229 West 43rd Street, New York NY 10036, Tel: 212-556-1234.
The world's most powerful newspaper needs no introduction to users of
NameBase. As its enemies never tire of pointing out, the "Times" does
more than simply report and comment on the news; it defines the limits of
acceptable discourse, "the news that's fit to print," for our culture at
large. In 1961, for example, James Reston decided, on grounds of Establishment
solidarity, to suppress a detailed story about the imminent U.S. invasion
of Cuba -- a decision that President Kennedy later regretted. But this
decision was no anomaly for the "Times." A couple of decades later, for
instance, Raymond Bonner persisted in reporting on the gothic crimes of
U.S. client states in Central America -- and soon found himself replaced
by more tractable correspondents. And so it goes.
As a result, the best way to interpret many stories in the "Times" is
to follow the backwards procedure that used to be recommended to readers
of "Pravda": use the contrary opinions and inconsistent facts buried at
the end of the story as the key to interpret the claims of the lead
paragraph. Thus economic mavericks -- and ordinary people -- had the U.S.
economy of the 90s psyched out way ahead of "leading analysts" cited by
the "Times."
-- Steve Badrich
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