'Stance Draws Ire'
Ah, the Times. You'd think a story headlined 'Romney’s Gay Rights Stance Draws Ire' and led with "Gov. Mitt Romney...is drawing sharply increased criticism from conservative activists for his advocacy of gay rights in a 1994 letter" would be replete with quotes from frothing right-wing extremists denouncing - in no uncertain terms - Mr. Romney. Are there such quotes? I mean, what kind of reporter would make such a claim without some evidence to back it up?
Let's see...here's one: "This is quite disturbing," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, who had praised Mr. Romney as a champion of traditional values at the group’s conference in late September. [Sounds promising - the "quite disturbing" is probably just the start of a real broadside against the wayward candidate. Let's keep reading:] "This type of information is going to create a lot of problems for Governor Romney. He is going to have a hard time overcoming this." Oh...well that's not really an attack, more a head shake by a supporter over a tactical setback. I'm sure there's more.
Ok, here we go: Paul Weyrich, a founder of the modern conservative movement, said:[Ooh, this guy sounds like a real right-wing nut job - this is going to be a doozy...] "Unless he comes out with an abject repudiation of this, I think it makes him out to be a hypocrite. And if he totally repudiates this, you have to ask, on what grounds?" Huh, that was no fun...really, a rather cool-headed, sensible assessment of the effect this new information might have - but I certainly don't detect any "ire" there. Anything else in the article to bolster the reporter's claims? Afraid not, just a background on the governor's apparently shifting positions.
It's rather obvious the point of the article was to discredit Mitt Romney and to bash him for his recent rightward shift on social issues, and the lede about angry conservatives was a ruse to make it look newsworthy. Yes, the Times is the greatest paper in the world, but these little nuggets of [thinly] disguised bias do make me chuckle from time-to-time.
Let's see...here's one: "This is quite disturbing," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, who had praised Mr. Romney as a champion of traditional values at the group’s conference in late September. [Sounds promising - the "quite disturbing" is probably just the start of a real broadside against the wayward candidate. Let's keep reading:] "This type of information is going to create a lot of problems for Governor Romney. He is going to have a hard time overcoming this." Oh...well that's not really an attack, more a head shake by a supporter over a tactical setback. I'm sure there's more.
Ok, here we go: Paul Weyrich, a founder of the modern conservative movement, said:[Ooh, this guy sounds like a real right-wing nut job - this is going to be a doozy...] "Unless he comes out with an abject repudiation of this, I think it makes him out to be a hypocrite. And if he totally repudiates this, you have to ask, on what grounds?" Huh, that was no fun...really, a rather cool-headed, sensible assessment of the effect this new information might have - but I certainly don't detect any "ire" there. Anything else in the article to bolster the reporter's claims? Afraid not, just a background on the governor's apparently shifting positions.
It's rather obvious the point of the article was to discredit Mitt Romney and to bash him for his recent rightward shift on social issues, and the lede about angry conservatives was a ruse to make it look newsworthy. Yes, the Times is the greatest paper in the world, but these little nuggets of [thinly] disguised bias do make me chuckle from time-to-time.
posted by ziel | 12/09/2006 09:19:00 AM
2 Comments:
The Times is not the greatest Newspaper in the world, really!
Remember Judith Miller!
Ok, sure, Miller screwed up - but who got it right? Sure there were plenty who were skeptical of the WMD arguments based on knee-jerk hostility to anything coming out of the Bush administration, but which paper was publishing well-researched fact based reporting debunking the WMD claims?
But regardless, there's others besides Miller - the Times still has overall the best reporting and quality of content of any paper.
Post a Comment
<< Home