The familiar branding “for all the news that is fit to print” that is equated with New York Times journalism integrity is a strong statement. Unfortunately, for a heralded progressive mainstream media outlet, the news that is fit to print fixates on nationalism, violence and shows a strict avoidance of dissent.

We analyzed last year’s New York Times “Quotations of the Day”, which are selected from the top five stories each day by a team of news reporters (1). We investigated the claim made by Bob Kohn that the New York Times is in the business of “slanting the presentation of the facts in leads, headlines, and placement; utilizing polls, labels, and loaded language to convey particular views, not genuine news; and staffing the newsroom with hacks who manipulate information to further a leftist agenda”(2).

By analyzing a single quote that represents the most important piece of news for the day, we are skewing the news coverage to topical or sensational stories. However, over the span of one year, the quotes are likely to encompass several types of news and thus reporting patterns may emerge.

Arthur Jr., grandson to the founder Adolph Ochs (3) and Chairman of the century old New York Times Company explains: “yes, we make money…but we make money to continue our search for truth”. In their 2002 Annual Report, the New York Times Company, which owns The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe and 16 other newspapers, boasted of $3.1 Billion (US) in yearly revenues, an increase of 11% in readership, and the 9 Pulitzer Prizes it was awarded (4). The numbers speak for themselves, but the truth is slightly less obvious.

Quote Classification: Nine Ways to See the World

We employed a news categorization format adopted from the book: The Missing News: Filters and Blind Spots in Canada’s Press (5).

Quotes were judged by four readers and categorized based on the following criteria:
A. Defense & Security, Crime
B. Nationalism & National Politics
C. Environment, Health, Education
D. Human rights & International issues/politics
E. Arts & Entertainment, Sports, Science & Technology
F. Gender, Women, and Youth Issues
G. Business & Investment
H. Religion & Ethics
I. Social Justice & Social Policy

Classification was not exclusive to a single type. A quote could be categorized C, D, and F as is conceivable in the following example:
#11- QUOTATION OF THE DAY – “At first, I was just hoping to die. I thought: ‘What are my children going to say? What are my sisters going to say?’ Now, I’m not scared. I know that I have H.I.V. and I know how to save myself.” – NOBANTU KWININA, 54, a South African woman who receives free AIDS drugs.
Possible scoring would be:
C:  AIDS is a pandemic disease,
D:  Free AIDS medication is an International policy (relative to the U.S.),
F:  Increased transmission of HIV infection rates in women is a well established gender issue.

A quote was assigned a category (A to I), counted as a “hit”, if two of the four readers gave the same scoring. Results were tabulated and presented as a percentage of the total number of quotes. We collected 339 quotes spanning January 27th, 2003 to February 13th 2004.

Systematic Patterns

Frequency scores for the 9 categories are shown in Figure 1 as a histogram, with standard error values used to show consistency across the four judges. The histogram shows that “Human rights & International issues/politics” (D: 51%), “Nationalism & National Politics” (B: 44%) and “Defense, Security & Crime” (A: 42%) had the highest frequency. “Business & Investment” (G: 11%), “Social Justice & Social Policy” (I: 11%)  and “Religion & Ethics” (H: 10%) made up the bottom third of the histogram.

 
Figure 1. Category frequency expressed as a percentage of the total number of quotes of the day (339 quotes). A hit was counted if two of four judges marked the same category as relevant for a quote. The standard error values show the consistency of the judging across the four judges.

During 2003, the United States invaded Iraq, which it continues to occupy, so it may come as no surprise that many of the quotes of the day reflected this reality. Reference to “Iraq” in 55 of 339 quotes is testimony to this fixation. However, what was of interest in this study was the glaring attention made to the category D, defined as “Human rights & International issues/politics”.

Skewed Representations: The Canadian Utopia and the Israel/Palestine Squalor

We searched the database for quotes pertaining to Canada, a democratic G-8 country with strong economic ties with the U.S., or Israel/Palestine, a region of longstanding conflict. Israel is the number 1 recipient of aid from the U.S., receiving one third of the total U.S. aid to foreign countries and amounting to U.S. $ 91 Billion since 1949 .

For quotes containing Canadian content, we found 4. For quotes containing Isreal/Palestine content, we found 9. The comparison of these “international” quotes was striking.

In the case of the 4 quotes related to Canada, two pertain to the issue of gay rights. The first was by Prime Minister Jean Chretien in which he justifies the decision to permit same sex marriage: “You have to look at history as an evolution of society” (June 18, 2003). The second quote in which Archbishop Michael Peers diplomatically expresses disapproval of a gay bishop in New Hampshire by saying: “We agreed to disagree. We are still in communion but there are dark, dark clouds on the horizon” (Oct 17, 2003). A third quote was again from Jean Chretien on the excitement of Olympic sports. The final quote by a McGill University economist suggests that Canada is a sea of liberal-mindedness: “You can be a social conservative in the U.S. without being called a wacko. Not in Canada” (Dec 2, 2003). Accordingly, judges scored 3 of the 4 quotes as having some relevance to social justice/policies (I) and one quote as sports (E).

The 9 Israel/Palestine quotes had a totally different flavour. With one exception, all quotes perpetuated intolerance, fear and a clear myopia to social justice/policies (I). For instance, on January 12th, 2004 Ariel Sharon stated: “I know that people are talking about the fence. You know who built the fence? Terror built the fence”. Sharon was quoted again on May 26th, 2003: “The moment has arrived to divide this tract of land between us and the Palestinians”.

Examples of Israel’s ideological stance justifying alienation and violence towards Palestinians were condoned by George W. Bush on October 7th, 2003: “Israel must not feel constrained in defending the homeland”. A quote by Colin Powell on May 12th, 2003 read: “I think it’s important not to get so hung up on a particular word or a particular statement that we lose the opportunity to get started, to get going”.

A quote by a cashier from a supermarket in Rosh Haayin, Israel, near where a suicide bomber struck, expressed futility: “I hope we’ll have peace, but I don’t believe in it anymore” (Aug 13, 2003). A furious Palestinian mother of a suicide bomber articulates Palestinian self-guilt and contempt: “If I had known, Hiba, that you were going to do this, I would have tied you up with a rope” (May 30th, 2003). A quote from a PLO legal adviser named Michael Tarazi on June 17th, 2003, explains: “We have to get an agreement with Israel in order to get an agreement with Hamas. And we have to get an agreement with Hamas in order to get an agreement with Israel.” Next is a quote by Samir Al-Masharawi, a top-official from the Palestinian Fatah faction provides a global, but pessimistic perspective: “After September 11, the Palestinian resistance lost its international support. After the Iraq war, the Palestinian resistance lost its Arab support” (Jul 1, 2003).

Finally, only one quote of 9 acknowledged compassion. On April 30th, 2003, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said: “We do not ignore the sufferings of the Jews throughout history. And in exchange, we hope the Israelis will not turn their backs on the sufferings of the Palestinians”. This sort of voice was otherwise non-existent in mid-east quotes.

Skewed Representations: Unequivocal lack of Dissent and Social Justice Dialogue

If a year’s worth of quotes of the day (339 in total), decided by consensus of NYtimes editors, is any indication of a political agenda, then we find there is no evidence it is a progressive one. Much like the editorial section, the quote of the day has the potential to make a significant political statement: it is judged the most important quote, among the many interviews, speeches and commentary of the day.

The majority of quotes were either centered on “International Issues” (D: 52%), “Nationalism and National Politics” (B: 43%) or “Defense, Security & Crime (A: 41%). Of these, there was a blatant lack of dissenting voice – retrospective analysis counted 7 from 173 quotes (4%). Whether the dissenting voice was from a protester in Rome, a wife who misses her husband in Iraq, a weapons inspector who questions the conclusions of WMD investigations, all were easily squelched by the pervasive unilateralism most aptly described by the quote by George W. Bush on Jan 21st, 2004: “America will never seek a permission to defend the security of our people”.

Brad MacIntosh ([email protected]) and Cathy Nangini are writers from Toronto and avid, but frustrated mainstream media readers (with help from Senka Naimji and Karen Stenning).

References:
1) Personal Correspondence with New York Times
2) Journalistic Fraud: How The New York Times Distorts the News and Why It Can No Longer Be Trusted, by Bob Kohn. WND Books, 2003.
3) The trust: the private and powerful family behind the New York Times, by Susan Tifft, Little, Brown, 1999.
4) http://www.nytco.com/company.html
5) The Missing News : Filters and Blind Spots in Canada’s Press By: Robert A. Hackett & Richard Gruneau, CCPA, Garamond Press 2000
6) http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm

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