Gored by Times Open Letter to the Editors of The New York Times

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
By David Wyles

America was "Gored" by The New York Times today. One of the most important political speeches of the last few years was not even covered by the Times.

In the edition I got on the West Coast, you had a feature article about a stolen Corvette, an article about Congressman Bob Ney (which anybody following politics would already know about), reconstruction in New Orleans (which could have been published any day in the last few months), and an article on protesters in China (which easily could have been moved to A3).

On Martin Luther King Day, former Vice President Al Gore gave an impassioned speech not only recounting the illegal wiretapping (and attempted blackmail) that J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI did on King, he also and rightfully called for a special counsel to look into the illegal eavesdropping President Bush has ordered against American citizens.

Ladies and gentlemen, that deserves front page coverage in the Times. His entire speech should have been printed on the inside pages.

At least the Washington Post covered it (on A3), even though their news article was skimpy and mediocre.

The LA Times had a very good piece on the Gore speech by Ronald Brownstein, but instead of featuring it on Page One as they should have, the editors of the LA Times chose to bury it back on A8, where they often put his weekly analytical pieces.

But you, you didn't even cover the speech.

Basically, editors of the NY Times, you messed up big time -- as you seem to have a predilection for doing lately under the stewardship of Pinch and Bill.

Are you people so much in thrall to the Bush Administration (see Judith Miller on Iraq and WMDs, see holding the eavesdropping story for a year after the election) that you refuse to even cover opposition to it?

Have you no decency? At long last, have you no sense of political or journalistic decency?

Sincerely,

David Wyles

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION