New York Times correction reveals hit job on conservative guru

The last pretenses of objective journalism at the New York Times are being shattered by that newspaper’s fanatical opposition to President Trump in particular and conservatism in general. It has become like the Daily Kos, except that it levels forests to put out a shrinking print edition.

Once upon a time, the Times and other MSM outlets claimed superiority over internet sites because of “layers and layers of fact-checkers.” These days, it is layers and layers of propagandists.

Consider the following correction (hat tip: John Hinderaker):

cover article this weekend about the life of the editor and writer Norman Podhoretz misstates the context for a quotation by Norman Mailer regarding the publication of Mr. Podhoretz’s book “Making It.” When Mailer described it as “brutal — coarse, intimate, snide, grasping, groping, slavering, slippery of reference, crude and naturally tasteless,” he was characterizing the critical reception to Mr. Podhoretz’s book, not critiquing it himself. And because of an editing error, the article refers incorrectly to Susan Sontag’s work as an editorial assistant at Commentary magazine. She did not work for Mr. Podhoretz. (He had already left the magazine.)

This “error” can only be explained by animus toward Podhoretz. It is 180 degrees off base.

The article appeared on the front page of the Metropolitan section – a very high profile slot, one sure to be read by Podhoretz’s friends, neighbors, and enemies in the city he has made his home his entire life. And it intended to make him look foolish, sinister, and out of touch. Look at the darkness surrounding him (never mind the prominence of his nose) in the cover photograph the Times commissioned:

If the author of the article did not intend harm to Podhoretz, then he is confessing to a sloppy cut-and-paste-effort, focused entirely on the negative. It was so negative it had to apply to the man, not his critics. Why bother to check to see the intended target?

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