John M. Broder and Tom Zeller Jr. of The New York Times are kind enough today to offer a front page “News Analysis” which works very hard to offer “balance” on the Gulf oil rig gusher by downplaying concerns of an unprecedented ecological disaster noting “the Deepwater Horizon blowout is not unprecedented, nor is it yet among the worst oil accidents in history.”
They even offer a scientific “expert” to help support that thesis:
What they don’t do, however, is let readers know that Dokken’s “conservation group,” the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, is actually sponsored in large part by the offshore oil drilling industry!
Moreover, when asked for comment about the failure to disclose that rather important piece of information, the Times’ Zeller is offering what has now become an all-too-familiar-for-the-“Paper-of-Record” rationalization to explain it all away…
According to Marian Wang at ProPublica today:
Seven other board members are currently employed at oil companies, or at companies that provide products and services “primarily†to the offshore oil and gas industry. Those companies include Shell, Conoco Phillips, LLOG Exploration Company, Devon Energy, Anadarko Petroleum Company and Oceaneering International.
The Gulf of Mexico Foundation’s president is a retired senior vice president of Rowan Companies Inc., an offshore drilling contractor.
Meanwhile, Transocean hosted the group’s winter board meeting in January and sponsored a dinner for the board of directors. Past board meetings have been hosted in full or in part by Anadarko Petroleum Company, Shell Exploration and Production, Valero Refinery and Marathon Oil Corporation.
ProPublica received a comment from Zeller which offered the same sense of rationalization that The BRAD BLOG received first from the Times Senior Editor for Standards Greg Brock, and then from their Public Editor Clark Hoyt when we’d initially asked about their repeatedly inaccurate reports on the trumped up James O’Keefe/Andrew Breitbart ACORN “Pimp” Hoax which we spent much of the beginning of this year covering.
Writes Zeller in response to ProPublica’s query (this is his full response):
You could certainly mount the argument that such co-mingling might influence his assessment of the oil slick and how bad it might get, but as I understand it, the bulk of GMF’s operating budget comes from federal and state grants, so that wasn’t my sense.
Of course, it’s probably always better to err on the side of full disclosure (ditto for Oceana, another group quoted in the article), but we operate within space constraints as well—and I believe we did link out to the various Web sites, so enterprising readers could peruse their boards and sponsors.
At least in this case, Zeller admitted right off the bat, sort of, that a problem had occurred. That’s more than we can say for Brock and Hoyt, who stood by everything about the Times’ out-and-out inaccurate coverage of the ACORN “Pimp” Hoax, which the duo even made ridiculous excuses in support of and accused us of having a political agenda for demanding accuracy in their reporting. They would eventually, months later, after it was way too late, offer a tepid and begrudging correction to just one aspect of their multiple misreports.
So Zeller didn’t attempt to cover things up, as his higher-ups Brock and Hoyt inexcusably did, but instead of simply apologizing for the oversight/failure and making an appropriate correction/update to the report excuses are offered. The original story remains on the NYTimes website even now, at least half a day since it was first published, without any updates.
By way of our own disclosure, we’ve dealt with Zeller in years past, and have come to like him on a personal level. But the excuses at the Times have got to stop. It seems to be the culture there now — find any reason to not cop to errors and correct them immediately.
At least that’s the case as long as such errors don’t adversely affect Rightwingers. In that case, the Times, and the rest of the (absurdly so-called) “Liberal Media” can’t issue appropriate — or even inappropriate — corrections fast enough.
Of course, today’s entire sorry tale underscores Ernest Canning’s spot-on piece at The BRAD BLOG yesterday, decrying the corporate media’s continuing role in helping to boost the fossil fuel industry’s Climate Change Denial Machine.
Do the right thing, Tom. Stop making excuses and update that story ASAP. You really don’t want Tom Tomorrow to make you as famous as he did Hoyt, do you?
Busted, again! Brad & Co., thanks for keeping an eye on these inept people. I’ve lost all confidence in this paper since Judith Miller.
Oh, I do hope Tom Tomorrow comes through with another zinger for the NYT!
NYT: all the news that’s fit to pimp
OIL TIES? Lookee here:
“The Crazy Lady, of whom it was revealed has ties to Big Oil.
http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/02/sarah-palin-doesnt-believe-in.html
“And of whom has ties with criminal elements in Giddings and Tyler Texas (along with Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity)
http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/05/sarah-palin-and-glenn-beck-complain.html
“And of whom her PAC treasurer runs a shady political dirty tricks organization.
http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/05/timothy-crawford-and-new-models-shady.html
“This SarahPAC treasurer’s organization claims to be a non-profit 501(c)(4), but a nonprofit web identity, but “has not registered as a nonprofit, has no board of directors, and no paperwork on file with the IRS or the Federal Elections Commission”.
The “paper-of-record” has become the corporate shills with a disturbing track record of thoughtless repetition of oligarch deceit.
As usual, outstanding coverage by Brad!
Many thanks for your tireless pursuit of accountability! I love it!
– Pat
Since my comment has already been said, in many ways, I defer to the previous comments, some of which are SUPER.
Hello Brad,
It seems that the NY Times is like “Charmin”. Something that is very soft and when “used” should be flushed down the toilet.
When I seen a BP spokesman on TV the other night going out of his way to lay blame on every other contractor on that rig “perception management†was in full force..
Paper of Bushit. When Cheney and the New World Order wanted a war in Iraq where did they go to spread their propaganda and lies???
Oh yeh, the New York Times. Of course all the people including the Bush Administration responsible for treason, mis-information, and doctored intelligence tying Sadam to the their fcking 9-11 lie to get the death machine going have never been prosecuted for these war crimes. Cheney’s boy Scooter Libby think was prosecuted but of course he got off because the Bavarian Illuminati are above the law.
These greedy lying anti-envirnmental vampires are working their Neo-Conservative Project For A New Century plan with their new puppet president Obama.
Regretfully sorry that while it is extremely inconvenient of Bradblog to demand journalist integrity of this paper of broken records, this corporate rag will continue their undying support of the military industrial complex/corporate ruling class every step of the way regardless of the fact checker.
This oil spill is gonna adversely affect the aquatic life in gulf. All the aquatic creatures will have to die as a result of a man made mistake.