Two Papers in One

When a news organization views itself as the newspaper of record, as The New York Times does, it’s particularly important to be consistent in reporting—to apply a principled analysis to the news, to … yadda, yadda …

“It’s amusing therefore to encounter what James Taranto calls “two papers in one.”

"The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won't be posted here."--New York Times, on the Climategate emails, Nov. 20, 2009

"The articles published today and in coming days are based on thousands of United States embassy cables, the daily reports from the field intended for the eyes of senior policy makers in Washington. . . . The Times believes that the documents serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match."--New York Times, on the WikiLeaks documents, Nov. 29, 2010

Hmmm.

Many of us in the Center have argued over the years that the Times gives new meaning to the word Left-wing bias. If a “leak” (or for that matter, a news story) exposes one of its pet mimes as a fraud, it rarely sees the light of day. But if a “leak” or a news story somehow bolsters one of its beloved mimes, it gets frequent, front-page coverage. So much for objectivity or journalistic ethics.