Tuesday, August 5, 2008

The Liberal Bias of the New York Times

Pundits like my girl Ann Coulter are always going on about the liberal bias of the New York Times. To see for myself I decided to begin reading the New York times to see if I noticed any bias. For the most part, the paper does an average job of presenting fair coverage of stories. The only marked bias I've seen that's really gotten be going, aside from the opinions pages, is the strange pro-illegal immigrants bias. Here are two prime examples of what I'm talking about:

In Cancer, With A Side of Beaurocracy the author details the awful plight of a poor little 9-year-old girl with skin cancer. This wouldn't be news except for that 1. She has an extremely rare form of cancer not often found in children 2. Her condition is so advanced she needs a life-saving operation right away 3. She gets denied the operation by her health insurance and 4. Her insurance denies her because it's state-provided and she's an illegal immigrant. The issue here is not that New York's Child Health Plus wouldn't cover this girl- it actually covers all children of illegal immigrants with tax dollars from LEGAL citizens-, it's that somehow in the paper chase she got denied coverage. Her illegal immigrant mother even had the nerve to go on record saying the country she resides in illegally didn't provide a free operation to her child fast enough. I'm not saying the child doesn't deserve an operation- I have a heart, I'm glad she's getting the care she needs, and I don't think she deserves to die just because she's here illegally. But I do think the article had a very marked bias. It would have been nice if it discussed, even just for a minute, how legal citizens are not necessarily entitled to care, so it's silly for illegals to think they should be entitled to it.

And today, in Mexican's Death Bares a Town's Ethnic Tension, the whole premise of the article is biased. It tries to make the case that the beating and subsequent death of an illegal immigrant by four high school boys was somehow representative of how the entire town hates illegal immigrants. The problem is that the quotes in the article and the facts from the town prove it's just not true. The town's illegal immigrant community is trying to turn these kids into whipping boys for ever hate crime ever committed. This wasn't a hate crime. Three of the kids were underage. They don't deserve to be tried as adults for this. The immigrants are trying to say they'll get off easy because they're good kids and the person that died was just an illegal, not someone protected by US law, and I'm thinking... yes. Exactly. If you want to be protected by US laws you should try becoming a US citizen, and then you'll get all the protections you want. If Mexico wants to try these kids for the death of one of their own, that's up to Mexico. I'm not saying what the kids did was wrong- it was- but I don't think they deserve to have their lives ruined over some immigrants wanting a death avenged.

The problem with these articles is not with the stories themselves- poor immigrant children don't deserve to die, and it's not okay to kill someone (even if they are illegal)- it's with the way the articles are written. They both fail to tell the other side of the story, the story about how CHP is generous for even extending illegals care, and the part where illegal immigrants are not necessarily protected by the laws of a country they don't belong to.

4 comments:

Sharkflesh said...

The media likes to leave out certain facts in order to give the sliiightest twist, as to make things seem quite perfectly true. Most people who follow news are not complete dolts, so media types leave out facts or change them enough to slant things the way they want to be heard. And sometimes (ie, Dan Rather) one goes way too far.

The media needs a victim. Illegal immigrants are not viewed as such by most Americans, so they need to leave out that one tiny detail: they should not be here.

I hope the little girl can be saved and given proper treatment...but not here. Not until she becomes legal. Americans should not have to see their tax money drained into criminal's and illegal's lives.

Conservative Cutie said...

Child Health Plus is exclusive to New York, and I'm fairly certain it was established during Chairman Hillary's reign of terror. It doesn't bother me that their state choses to extend coverage to illegal children. If New Yorkers want to pay for that it's their choice, however I'd protest the hell out of it getting passed in PA. That's why state's rights are neat sometimes- to a certain extent they can do what their constituents want them to do, kind of like gay marriage in some states and Texas executing the heck out of criminals serving life sentences.

But dude, not in PA. I'm not paying for that. Gotta be on the look out.

mickster said...

The New York Times is not bias. They have an agenda. There is a difference. If they took the facts and came to a conclusion based on the way the editor feels about certain things -- then we have bias. What the New York Times does is different. They actively go in search of facts to push their agenda, an agenda that props up socialist ideology. The Times didactic approach is closer to a Marxist doctrine called socialist realism than it is to reporting "all the news that's fit to print." Unfortunately, for a once prominent paper the editorial board has chosen to determine what is fit and whether it fits with their agenda. Bush bashing fits, religion bashing fits - as long as it is Christian and not Muslim, socicalim fits and capitalism bashing fits.

See Bernard Goldberg "Bias"

Hans said...

I'm astonished. Do we not have the moral obligation to help those in need? You may recall the words of Jesus, "I was a stranger, and ye took me in... Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Mat. 25:35-40).

If it is a matter of taxes, of working within the system, then lets make it as easy as possible to do work in the United States. If people want to come to the United States, and pay taxes and raise a family, let them come. That is what America was founded on, that is where most Americans came from, and that is what makes America strong. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

To deny someone protection under the law, or deny them needed healthcare is an indefensible abdication of our moral responsibility. It is entirely appropriate for the media to point and personalize the consequences of our behavior.