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Times Watch for
January 29, 2004
The
Times Discovers New Species:
Conservatus Republicus
The Times is starting up a "conservative beat." New York Observer media reporter Sridhar Pappu reports that David Kirkpatrick, formerly the paper's book industry reporter, "will examine conservative forces in religion, politics, law, business and the media--a job that will take him across the country and make him a frequent presence in Washington." Keller admits to Pappu: ""We haven’t always had a real three-dimensional understanding of where conservative activists are coming from."
The early reaction from conservatives: bemusement. Andrew Sullivan addresses the story (second item) with a big scoop of sarcasm: "They've discovered a new species that they're featuring in Science Times and elsewhere in the paper. And they even have a new reporter for it specifically. The new species is called a 'conservative.' New York Times editors and reporters have long heard that such creatures exist, but, under the new aegis of Bill Keller, are determined to actually find a few. They're even going to talk to some on the phone!"
Over on National Review Online, Jonah Goldberg is withholding judgment but says, "I can't help but get that old-time gorillas-in-the-mist vibe again where reporters trek out into the wilds of conservatism to explain who we are." (Goldberg is also looking forward to having his "own media embed.")
• Conservatives | Bill Keller | David Kirkpatrick
"Conservatives" vs. Democrats, Part XI
New topic, same labeling
bias from reporter Robert Pear.
Just as Pear did in his many Medicare stories, Thursday's take on Bush's proposal to increase funding for the National Endowment for the Arts finds only conservatives and Democrats in Congress. While Rep. Tom Tancredo, Rep. Charles Taylor, and Rep. Sue Myrick are "conservatives," Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter is simply a Democrat, even though her legislative record (which earned her a lifetime rating of 6 from the American Conservative Union) puts her on the liberal end of the political spectrum.
Pear also notes: "Public support for the arts was hotly debated in the 1990's. Conservatives complained that the agency was financing obscene or sacrilegious works by artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano." (So everyone else was just fine with it?)
For the rest of Pear on Bush's NEA proposal, click here.
• Arts | George W. Bush | Labeling Bias | Robert Pear
Hezbollah, an "Organization" of "Pioneers"
Thursday's filing from Ian Fisher, "As Its Role Shifts, Hezbollah Gains in Prisoner Trade," portrays the anti-Israeli, anti-American terrorist group Hezbollah in a rather favorable light: "The tense and hilly border here is where, if all goes to plan, Israeli trucks will on Friday return the bodies of 59 men killed during Israel's long occupation of southern Lebanon. The streets will be packed in celebration, predicted a grocer, Mahmoud Tahir, who lived under that occupation for 22 of his 63 years. And Mr. Tahir has no question whom to thank: Hezbollah, heroes to virtually all of southern Lebanon even if Israel and the United States put the armed Shiite Muslim group on the 'A team' of world terror."
Later Fisher disputes the idea that the Hezbollah, er, "organization" is foundering: "There is no suggestion that Hezbollah, a pioneer of suicide bombings that was responsible for major attacks against Americans in the early 1980's, is an organization in decline."
Setting aside Fisher's strangely affirmative word choice (pioneer? organization?), he could have added more of the gory details about those "major attacks." That's an oblique reference to the 1983 Beirut truck bombing that killed 240 U.S. Marines and 58 French troops, and the bombing of the American embassy in Beirut that killed 63.
Just as he did last summer for the anti-Israel Palestinian terror group Hamas, Fisher points out the softer side of Hezbollah: "It runs hospitals, charity programs and a television station and holds 12 seats in Parliament, a toehold for a likely growing role in politics."
Near the end, Fisher notes that "marching to free Jerusalem from the Jews" is "an often-stated goal of Hezbollah." That's one way to put it. Actually, Hezbollah's goal is to destroy Israel.
For the rest of Fisher on Hezbollah, click here.
• Ian Fisher | Israel | Hezbollah | Middle East | Terrorism
E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org