At Issue: The New York Times Stifles Debate On Its Own Pages - Press Release - December 4, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2002

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Katie Wright (703) 683-5004, ext. 132

Statement By Media Research Center President Brent Bozell

At Issue: The New York Times Stifles Debate
On Its Own Pages

“The New York Times’s Howell Raines seems to have swapped his role as the paper’s executive editor for lead activist for wealthy women golfers. The decision to print over 30 articles in three months on the membership policy of the private Augusta National Golf Club can only be driven by one thing: personal obsession.

“Today, it was revealed Raines has even gone so far as to refuse to print two columns on the issue by Times’s sports columnists Dave Anderson and Harvey Araton because they didn’t toe the Raines line. This intolerance is itself intolerable. What is the point of printing opinion pieces if the editor decides only one opinion can be expressed?

“Raines’s elevation from editor of the Times’s editorial page to editor of the entire paper caused fear among many his editorial background would taint the news pages. It is obvious that this fear has been realized.”

For more information on the Media Research Center or to schedule an interview with a spokesperson please contact Katie Wright at (703)-683-5004, ext. 132.