Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Oh Who Owns the New York Times?

This question originally arose in response to a diary on Kos about if the NYT helped throw the election. I was originally going to write "no, I think that's going a little too far, although there is probably a grain of truth in it," but after thinking it through I'm willing to give it a lot more weight. I don't think it was an intentional nod to Bush, but rather the paper's attempt to cover its own ass for all the shit - Miller et al. - that it was responsible for.

Since I started following politics and the media I've always thought of the times as left of center. Not some cog in the vast left wing conspiracy, like me, just left of center. But the governing interests at the times are anything but that. You can read the bios of the NYT board of directors here. Then please check out the full list with analysis over at DKos. In brief:

The Carlyle Group. Big Pharma. Insurance. Venture Capital. These people are THE rich and THE powerful. "The haves and the have-mores," as certain humble public servants would have it. Bush calls them "his base."


The Times' goal is not to report the "All the news that's fit to print." It is to preserve the Times' standing in the world. The problem is that is dictated by the above group of individuals. Not really representative of most of the world, or even the Times' readers. When a small, over-privileged class acts to protect its own interests at no matter the cost to everyone else, what else can we expect?

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