PrintMessage of the Week
The New York Times's message of the week, heralded in its Sunday "Week in Review Section," comes in two parts: (1) anything George W. Bush says is either a lie or a meaningless political sop to one group or another; and (2) Times readers are too stupid to understand the President's words without the filter of their editorial and reportorial staff.
So we find three quarters of a page devoted to a "chart" headed "Spoken and Unspoken" in which Richard Stevenson and David Sanger purport to "deconstruct" a number of passages from Mr. Bush's recent State of the Union speech.
Each selection from the speech is accompanied by the reporters' explanation of what Bush really meant or why his words are an outright falsehood. It's sort of a "Bush According to The Times."
Although difficult to accomplish, this insulting affront to truth and common sense, is perhaps a new nadir for the paper, which, ever since it began to feel the "Pinch" has veered sharply from its long—established course as a reasonably trustworthy new source into a house organ for the liberal left whose "news" columns are carefully crafted to advance the political and social views of management and the various agendas they espouse.
Richard N. Weltz 02 06 05
