Okrent
I was going to comment on Daniel Okrent’s embarrassing public editor piece in the Times yesterday, but Bob Somerby has made any further commentary redundent. Read.
OK, one brief comment. In this piece, Okrent makes it abundantly clear that he has no idea whatsoever that there might exist some difference of note between the concepts “balance” and “pandering to widely held prejudices.” His discussion of the Times coverage of same sex marriage suggests that each issue much have two more or less equally meritorious ‘sides’ a priori. It’s a deeply implausible, simplistic assumption that’s unfortunately widespread in the media today, and helps explain many of the more embarrassing attempts at balance (see the global warming skeptics repeatedly trotted out for ‘balance,’ for an excellent example). As long as Okrent has his job, don’t expect the NYT to address any of its actual pathologies.