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Jim Rutenberg

• October 28 -- MRC in the NYT
MRC is featured in a Jim Rutenberg story on media criticism.

• October 20 -- Anti-Kerry Film Accusations "Far Beyond Reality"
After much press hyperventilation, someone finally looks at "Stolen Honor," the anti-Kerry documentary that Sinclair Broadcast Group is to air Friday night: "The film is rife with out-of-context and incomplete quotations from Mr. Kerry and other antiwar veterans. Several historians said many accusations in it were not provable or stretched far beyond reality."

• October 4 -- Reporters Cackled Over Bush's Debate Performance
Jim Rutenberg's front-page story on the post-debate spin game peeks into the mindset of the reporters watching: "The loudest cackles among the reporters covering the first presidential debate broke out at about 9:55 on Thursday night in a vast, mirrored filing center at the University of Miami, where important impressions of the candidates' performance were just beginning to gel. And President Bush was on the receiving end."

• September 28 -- "Unsubstantiated" Swift Boats Watch
There they go again: "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which drew national attention with advertisements making unsubstantiated attacks against Mr. Kerry's military service…."

• September 22 -- Mary, Mary, Best be Wary
Is CBS throwing veteran producer Mary Mapes overboard in Memogate's wake?

• September 21 -- Dan Rather (Sort of) Apologizes; NYT Notices
The Times fronts Dan Rather's "apology."

• September 17 -- The Times on Discredited Dan Rather
Jim Rutenberg focuses on Dan Rather and CBS's discredited anti-Bush "memos," running down Rather's past conflicts with conservatives and finds that even some at CBS are dubious of the anchor's latest "scoop."

• September 16 -- Experts Split on Authenticity of CBS's "Memos"?
The Times (unlike the Washington Post) buries its update on CBS's apparently fraudulent "memos" while again insisting there's still room for doubt: "For every expert who said the documents were patently false, another insisted they could be authentic."

• September 14 -- Catching Up on "Memogate"
The Times follows up on "memogate" in the tamely headlined "CBS Offers New Experts To Support Guard Memos." The story is more skeptical, though not as hard-hitting as one in the Washington Post.

• September 10 -- Downplaying Doubts on Dubious Anti-Bush Memos
Yesterday the Times put anti-Bush charges on its front page--charges based on memos suggesting Bush got special treatment during Vietnam. Today the Times files a follow-up story casting grave doubt on the authenticity of those memos--on page A17.

• September 1 -- Republicans Disrespecting Veterans?
Jim Rutenberg stirs a controversy among Republican delegates: "When speakers at the Republican convention discuss Senator John Kerry's service in Vietnam, they use words like 'respect,' as Rudolph W. Giuliani did on Monday, giving nary a hint of the unsubstantiated charges by a veteran's group that Mr. Kerry lied to get his war medals, which dominated the campaign for two weeks before the convention began."

• August 27 -- Still Ignoring Kerry's "Christmas In Cambodia"
The Times again couches Swift Boat charges in a dubious light: "The Swift boat veterans, whose most serious charges have been contradicted by official records, some of their own past statements and a number of witnesses, got most of their initial money from Texans supportive of the president." Plus: Kerry in Cambodia, ignored again.

• August 25 -- More Guilt by Association for Swifties
Another Times story employs guilt by association against the Swift Boat Veterans: "Mr. Bush's campaign aides have repeatedly said they have no connection to the group, almost all of whose challenges to Mr. Kerry and his war record have been contradicted by official war records and even some of its members' own past statements….it has gradually acknowledged ties to people close to the Republican Party and Mr. Bush's campaign."

• August 23 -- "Undermining" Swift Vets, Ruing "False Information" on Blogs, Talk Radio
The Times insists that the "most serious contentions" of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "have been undermined by official records and conflicting accounts." Co-author Adam Nagourney frets in a related story about "this era when so much unsubstantiated or even false information can reach the public through so many different forums, be it blogs or talk-show radio."

• August 20 -- "The Times Attacks the Swift Vets"
The Times finally devotes a front-page story to the Swift Boat veterans challenging John Kerry's Vietnam war record--but it follows a pattern reminiscent of the Clinton scandal days in focusing on the subjects making the attack instead of the actual anti-Democratic charges raised, an angle clear from the headline, "Friendly Fire: The Birth of an Attack on Kerry."

• July 30 -- NYT (Finally) Mentions Kerry's Flip-Flop on Use of Vietnam Footage
Jim Rutenberg files "New Skirmish Over Images From Vietnam in a Kerry Video," which includes details of a Kerry flip-flop regarding his personal Vietnam footage first highlighted on Times Watch.

• July 29 -- Kerry Breaks Pledge to NYT's Keller -- Will the Times Take Note?
Jim Rutenberg on the Kerry bio-pic: "As the film details Mr. Kerry's own war service, in Vietnam, it shows the grainy film that Mr. Kerry brought back, mixed with archival footage of the war." But in 2002 Kerry told current Times Executive Editor Bill Keller "I have no intention of using" that footage.

• May 6 -- More Michael Moore
A day after splashing Michael Moore across the front page of the Times, the paper pours out another serving of Moore-helping controversy, again with no liberal or radical label for Moore, and no conservative critics.

• May 5 -- Page One for Michael Moore, Vets Against Kerry Buried
While Kerry’s Vietnam-heavy ad campaign made Tuesday’s page one, a group of fellow Navy “swift boat” Vietnam veterans assembling in Washington to declare John Kerry unfit for the presidency were assigned to Wednesday’s page 20. The Times saved front-page space for Michael Moore’s new anti-Bush film, but the radical-left director drew no label.

• May 3 -- Liar, Liar, Web Site on Fire
Times reporter Jim Rutenberg devoted a story and a picture to David Brock’s new Web site to “monitor the conservative media and correct erroneous assertions in real time.” Brock said he “hoped his new project could be as influential as the Media Research Center,” which has never been quite influential enough to be highlighted in a New York Times profile.

• October 22 -- Times Bias Trickles Into Headlines
Jim Rutenberg delivers a balanced story on an upcoming CBS miniseries on the Reagan White House, but a smart-aleck headline writer couldn't resist a little Reagan-bashing.