The New York Times has been critizised many times before for not providing objective reporting, and for being a tool for various interest groups, especially official ones. That has little to do with conspiracy – after all, somebody has to pay the bill, and the bill payers (advertisers) are getting bigger and more intertwined with politics, and they all have their own agendas. But here we’re talking about government influence, at that should raise a red flag much more than corporate influence. Sadly enough, the press is going along with it – so much about the freedom of the press.
I had the pleasure to see Robert Fisk, reporter for the British Independent, when he was talking at MIT recently. He suggested that the New York Times should be renamed into “Officials say…”, reasoning that many articles use this phrase continuously, while rarely elaborating on who those officials are.