Media Research Center Spotlight -- Editor and Partisan

Editor and Partisan

New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines has aggressively promoted liberal policies throughout his career. Listed below are what others have said about the head man at the Times and a couple of comments from Raines himself.

Clinton was a Favorite…of both Raines and the Times

Bill Clinton had “huge political talent,” presided over the “greatest prosperity in human history,” and held onto the “principles of social justice,” Raines told interviewer Charlie Rose.
(CyberAlert, August 8, 2002)
Video is PBS clip shown at 2003 MRC DisHonors Awards

“We’d editorially supported virtually every aspect” of Clinton’s program, Raines said on C-SPAN. On medical care, the Times was “particularly evangelical,” he claimed.
(CyberAlert, December 3, 2001)

Ronald Reagan Wasn’t

Raines has repeatedly shown personal animosity for Ronald Reagan and other Republicans like former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson. Raines said the Gipper’s success “saddened” him.
(CyberAlert, May 22, 2001)

Even Journalists Complain About How Partisan He Is…

The Times has actively lobbied against going to war with Iraq. “That’s partisan journalism and that’s what Raines’s Times does for a living,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote.
(CyberAlert, August 19, 2002)

Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson found Raines promotion to executive editor an example of the pervasive liberal bias in the media. Raines had proven himself to be a partisan, Samuelson argued, and the national media’s acceptance of this promotion without comment was more proof of liberal bias.
(CyberAlert, August 30, 2001)

Former Newsweek reporter Mickey Kaus chided executive editor-to-be Raines for a factually challenged editorial. “It’s lucky the guy who produces that sort of unthinking hackneyed propaganda isn’t taking over the whole paper,” Kaus noted.
(CyberAlert, May 31, 2001)

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