Opinion as news

The New York Times des not hesitate to publish opinion as news, as is illustrated by a paragraph in a Times story in The Boston Globe, Apr. 16, 2019, about Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Story is headlined, “In Omar attack, Trump revives familiar refrain against Muslims.” The Times reports: “Trump and his team are trying to make Omar, one of a group of progressive women Democratic House members who is relatively unknown in national politics, a household name….”

“Relatively unknown?” Relative to whom? Google shows 56.9 million hits for Ilhan Omar, which is 10 million more than the 46.8 million hits for Nancy Pelosi. A search of the NY Times gets 207 references for Omar. That doesn’t sound like much, but she has only been around for a few months. By comparison, Massachusetts Congressman Richard E. Neal, now chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the most powerful committee in the House, who has been in Congress 30 years, was mentioned by the Times only 108 times.

The story, as printed in The Globe, does not quote Omar’s characterization of the 9/11 attacks as “…some people did something.”

File under: All the opinion in the guise of news.

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