The Private Editor No. 4; The News Not Fit for the NYT to Print: NPR and Anti-Semitism

The NYT has not shied away from reporting on the National Public Radio scandal, which resulted in the resignation of its CEO and former NYT executive. In its four articles on this subject, the NYT focuses on the NPR fundraisers’ disparaging remarks about the Tea Party and their statement that NPR would be better off without public money. The NYT coverage sweeps under the rug the NPR fundraisers nodding in agreement and laughing in response to the anti-Semitic remarks of the scammers (“Jews do kind of control the media”). One of the NPR fundraisers responds: “That’s good, I like that” after one of the scammers says: “we used to call it [NPR] National Palestine Radio.”

In my view, the NPR fundraisers’ apparent condoning of anti-Semitic remarks is the real story of the NPR scandal, not the Tea Party. If such remarks had come out of the mouth of a right-wing militia member, that would have been the headline, but not if the perpetrator is the genteel NPR.

I guess this was too hot for the NYT to print as well.