Crimes of The Times: Giving Credit In the Rare Instances Where Credit is Due

Sometimes we are a little hard on the New York Times, we admit. Because after all, it can be a very entertaining newspaper, and by entertaining I don't mean just the fun of spotting the over-the-top leftist bias.

One example of superb reporting and downright fine wordcraft was published in last Sunday's Magazine. "Dealing With Julian Assange and the Wiki Leaks Secrets" by Executive Editor Bill Keller is a monster 10-page (online) history of the WikiLeaks affair and how the Times dealt personally with dickhead Julian Assange.

But while Keller's article goes into minute and masterful detail on the actual publication of the leaks, he is still a Times communist and as such makes no attempt to downplay the inherently anti-Western flavor of the whole scandal. Keller does however deserve praise for pointing out that the Guardian of the UK used the WikiLeaks nonsense to produce a specifically anti-American message. And as can be expected from a high-ranking Times communist, Keller goes to extreme lengths to remind readers of just how much time he and his colleagues at the Times spend worrying about the morality of their actions.

Nevertheless, one reason I so enjoyed reading Keller's piece on Assange was that it was almost totally devoid of the usual social justice sloganeering that one finds in section A of Amerika's newspaper of record every single weekday. To not be reminded every other article of the joys of diversity or the evils of the Tea Party for a solid hour was a blissful departure from the road more travelled of the usual Times snivel and drivel.

Also on Sunday, the Times published this doozy of a wool-over-the-eyes piece on global inequality:
"The Neighbour's Wealth." We know that any time the Times decides to report on the politically uncomfortable topic of group differences in achievement, we are in for some serious journalistic gymnastics and tiptoeing around the truth. But with this review by Times communist Catherine Rampell (the Times' economics editor for Chirssakes), we have to wonder: if you're going to lie about and avoid the truth this much, why even bother to publish the article in the first place? It's like busy work for journalists.

"The Neighbour's Wealth," aka "The Haves and the Have Nots," is written by a World Bank economist and "development specialist" named Branko Milanovic. You'd think the guy would be an expert, and know about "IQ and the Wealth of Nations", the Lynn/VanHanan book (you can read an extensive preview here) which actually quotes extensively from World Bank reports, but noooooo. A good World Bank bureaucrat has to toe the party line, and they know they can count on the psychotic pussies at the New York Times to further cover up their coverup.

Instead of saying anything even remotely meaningful on the topic, never mind coming within light years of pointing out the utterly obvious about global inequality, the Times in their endless nastiness actually find a way - yes! - of bashing Europe and America, and blaming the rich (read: white people) for said inequality, while at the same time whining about the "rich poor" living in obesity in the welfare states of the West. If you can believe it.

From the review:

"[Milanovic] ... makes interesting international comparisons. The typical person in the top 5 percent of the Indian population, for example, makes the same as or less than the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American population. That’s right: America’s poorest are, on average, richer than India’s richest — extravagant Mumbai mansions notwithstanding.

"It is no wonder then, Milanovic says, that so many from the third world risk life and limb to sneak into the first. A recent World Bank survey suggested that 'countries that have done economically poorly would, if free migration were allowed, remain perhaps without half or more of their populations.' Mass-migration attempts are met with sealed borders in the developed world, which then results in the deaths of thousands of anonymous indigents journeying to promised lands only to be swallowed up by the Mediterranean or charred in the Arizona desert."

Disgusting, unbelievable stuff. Do these people have no shame? Do they not see how stupid they sound writing this clap trap? I mean Goooood, how is it possible for a supposedly advanced nation to have a "newspaper of record" like this?

[By the way, Miss Rampell: if you're reading this, you might want to go here to see what is really happening in the Arizona desert].