The New York Times Comes Clean

The New York Times is a must-read, in my view, for anyone who's serious about cultural engagement, but its seemingly willful ignorance of the blatant sociological, political, and religious predispositions with which it approaches the world is often mind-boggling. For those who have shared this reaction, read today's column by the Times' public editor, Daniel Okrent. He admits that, "if you think The Times plays it down the middle on any [social issues], you've been reading the paper with your eyes closed." Further,

if you're examining the paper's coverage of these subjects from a perspective that is neither urban nor Northeastern nor culturally seen-it-all; if you are among the groups The Times treats as strange objects to be examined on a laboratory slide (devout Catholics, gun owners, Orthodox Jews, Texans); if your value system wouldn't wear well on a composite New York Times journalist, then a walk through this paper can make you feel you're traveling in a strange and forbidding world.

Now if only Fox News would show the same candor.

Rob