The "(Far) Right" National Review?

     No labels for hard-core leftist lawyer Lynne Stewart, but National Review and Larry Kudlow are apparently considered "far right" at the Times.

     Saturday's Metro Section sports a Michael Cooper feature on conservative disaffection with New York Gov. George Pataki, in a story headlined "Pataki Takes His Lumps, And They're From the Right."

     So far, so what? But turn the page to read further, and the "jump page" headline reads: "Pataki Takes His Lumps, From the (Far) Right." Meanwhile, another story on the front of Saturday's Metro section on radical leftist lawyer Lynne Stewart reads simply: "Regretting the Bravado, a Convicted Lawyer Examines Her Options."

     For another example of the Times' sloppy labeling, check the headline it slapped upon a Reuters dispatch from Germany Monday on a group of neo-Nazis marching in Dresden: "Rightists Mar Remembrance In Dresden."

     So neo-Nazis are merely "Rightists," while National Review is of the "(Far) Right"?

For the full story on conservatives and Pataki, click here:

The Reporter Who Glorified Wolfe 

     Drug reporter Gardiner Harris salutes Naderite activist Sidney Wolfe in a long profile for Tuesday's Science section, "Drug Industry's Longtime Critic Says 'I Told You So.'"

     "Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, the drug safety gadfly, flew down the stairs of his headquarters here and swept out the door. 'I am so angry with the F.D.A.,' he said. 'Let's go get a cup of coffee because I've talked myself hoarse.' Set to music, this scene could serve as the opening sequence for one of the longest-running advocacy shows in Washington. Dr. Wolfe, a director at Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, has been angry with the Food and Drug Administration and talking himself hoarse about it for nearly 34 years. He has condemned dozens of high-priced medicines and denounced their makers. He has castigated state medical boards and railed about rates for Caesarean sections. He has sought to ban unpasteurized milk and some herbal supplements. In short, he has fought companies rich and poor and has angered just about every constituency in the health care industry."

     Gardiner gushes: "And through it all, Dr. Wolfe has been able to say that he told us so. He warned as early as April 2001 that patients should avoid taking Vioxx and Celebrex. He issued a similar warning on Bextra in September. He has been shouting about deficiencies at the F.D.A. since the first Nixon administration….In one of his more remarkable recent feats, Dr. Wolfe was scanning a pharmaceutical industry Web site in January when he stumbled on the results of an unpublished 1999 trial of Celebrex. Patients taking it in the trial were more likely to experience heart problems than those taking a placebo. The trial itself was rather small and its heart results barely reached statistical significance. But Pfizer's conclusions about the results, posted on the site, contradicted statements it had been making for years, that no trial of Celebrex had ever shown that the medicine hurt the heart. 'I nearly fell off my chair when I saw this' trial, Dr. Wolfe said. Pfizer executives said the study was flawed. Still, Dr. Wolfe's discovery made headlines around the country."

     Harris offers this personal view, portraying Wolfe as gruff but somehow endearing: "He walks briskly, bouncing on the balls of his feet. At a coffee shop, he orders a decaffeinated latte with skim milk. He agrees to share a cookie, but only if it is oatmeal raisin. Although his hair is shorter, Dr. Wolfe, 67, is still a hippie who lives his ideals. He rarely eats processed food. He runs 10 miles a week. He presently takes no prescription or over-the-counter medications -- even though his cholesterol is about 230. He insists that there is no research to suggest that a cholesterol-lowering drug will help low-risk people like him. This kind of doctrinaire consistency can be insufferable, of course. But in Dr. Wolfe's case, his exasperating sincerity is relieved by a deep-throated laugh and a few dire character flaws. For one, his office is a fire hazard. His desktop is buried under two feet of paper that drips off the sides into more piles that appear to have aged considerably."

     Deep into the story Harris finally lets a substantive criticism be made: "The knock on Dr. Wolfe is that he hates all drugs. Sam Kazman, general counsel of the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, said that Dr. Wolfe wanted drug approvals to be far slower, 'and that amounts to a death sentence to lots of people who are in desperate need.'" He then lets Wolfe (who is never given a liberal political label) rebut the charge.

For the rest of Harris's profile of Sidney Wolfe, click here:

Bush Social Security Plan: DOA

     Close readers of the New York Times could get the subtle impression that the paper wants Bush's Social Security reform proposals to fail, and a headline in Tuesday's paper does nothing to shake that idea.

     Robin Toner's story is headlined with this tombstone to Bush's plan, which hasn't even been submitted to Congress yet: "Bush Pension Plan Faces A Brick Wall in the Senate.

     Yet when you actually read Toner, you find that two Democratic senators have left a crack in that wall. Deep in the story she points out: "There have been a few cracks in the Democratic wall. Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who is up for re-election in two years, was the only Democratic senator who did not sign a letter protesting the president's plan because of its effect on the deficit. 'I'm waiting for the president to detail his plan,' Mr. Nelson said in an interview. 'It's not appropriate for me to take a side for or against it because we don't know what it is yet.' Senator Thomas R. Carper, Democrat of Delaware, indicated recently that he had not ruled out private accounts in Social Security, but only if they did not add to the deficit or result in any decrease in benefits."

For the full Toner piece, click here: