Who knows? Maybe one day there will be a reawakening at the Times, and at other big papers, so that the biases of their editors and publishers are on display for the world to see. The result will be a transparency that can only make the exchange between news conveyors and consumers more open and, inevitably, more honest.
*Update: We should note that the Associated Press was also there on October 27, 2010; in fact, the wire service got the story of the Haitian cholera epidemic slightly before Al Jazeera did. What’s more, the AP continued to cover the story, running numerous follow-up reports, including an important piece from November 19, 2010 investigating whether UN peacekeepers brought cholera to Haiti. If Al Jazeera deserves to be recognized by other outlets for its excellent coverage of the epidemic, then the AP certainly does, as well.
I'm a big fan of Debbie Sontag, Al-Jazeera, and -- by the way-- the Associated Press, which broke the cholera-sewage-UN story on the same day as Al-Jazeera. (Your failure to note AP's role does not, I assume, constitute anti-wire bias.)
Moreover, Randal Archibold, the Times' Latin America Bureau Chief, delivered a big feature story on Cubans' unsung-heroism in combatting the cholera epidemic. That was just a few months ago. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/world/americas/in-haitis-cholera-fight-cuba-takes-lead-role.html?pagewanted=all.
Generally, I don't think a single paragraph devoted to who broke the sewage story constitutes bias in this story, which is about continuing failures and controversies in the cholera epidemic. The Times could have not mentioned Al Jazeera/AP's role at all. And a more striking omission, I thought, was its failure to mention by name the legal organizations involved in trying hold UN peacekeeping to account. (They are the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.)
A more interesting critique of the Times in Haiti, or internationally, begins with shrinking newsholes and overtaxed reporters (I believe the Latin America bureau has just two full time reporters, who cover Mexico, the border, Central America, and the Caribbean-- whoa). The Times isn't devoting adequate resources to important, ongoing international stories.
#1 Posted by Pooja Bhatia, CJR on Fri 13 Apr 2012 at 01:01 PM
NYT - Zionism
Al Jazeera - truth for everybody else.
America -- zionist gulag in denial
#2 Posted by Paula Thomsen, CJR on Sat 14 Apr 2012 at 07:52 AM
I thought that Al Jazeera posted the video that was effective proof of the source, and that AP came up with a substantiating wire story.
As for the insinuated accusation of a bias against the wires, I'll only say that AP is deep in my heart because it was my introduction to Mexico and Central America almost 30 years ago, when they hired me to report and edit (at $300 a week) out of their Mexico City bureau.
That said, the more relevant and power-challenging question would be whether AP -- under it's new president, who formerly oversaw The Miami Herald -- will show due fairness to Cuba, which has done so much great work in Haiti. Having met some AP staffers in Cuba, I hope and expect so.
Lastly, there's no way I can deny getting wound up from time to time about The Times (all the news our editors choose, I sometimes say of them), though I concede that I, an army of one, should probably try to check my impulses.
#3 Posted by Ron Howell, CJR on Sat 14 Apr 2012 at 10:08 PM