Smartertimes (2025)

21/06/2024

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22/09/2023

The New York Times has trouble enough on a substantive level earning the trust of readers. Why erode that trust further with sloppy usage? Readers may figure that if the newspaper doesn't place a priority on getting details right when it comes to English language, it won't place a priority on getting details right when it comes to factual accuracy, either.

From a New York Times dispatch about succession at Bloomberg: "Mr. Bloomberg has recently set his sites on blocking new petrochemical plants that make fertilizer, plastics and packaging." Even the Microsoft Word program gives me a double underline to

26/08/2023

A front page news analysis of the Republican debate reports, "Across the stage, each of the seven men — whether they were pro-Trump or anti-Trump — wore dark suits, white shirts and red ties. It's a uniform frequently favored by another man. One who wasn't there."

In fact Senator Scott was not wearing a white shirt; his shirt was a pale or sky blue.

A front page news analysis of the Republican debate reports, "Across the stage, each of the seven men — whether they were pro-Trump or anti-Trump — wore dark suits, white shirts and red ties. It's a uniform frequently favored by another man. One who

12/06/2023

The Sunday Times of London is out with a new investigation. Its editor tweets, "We talked to experts in the US who had been tasked with investigating how the Covid-19 virus emerged in Wuhan. They were given privileged access to top secret intelligence. They described how the scientists in Wuhan had worked alongside the Chinese military when they conducted experiments fusing together the world's most deadly coronaviruses. They allege that the People's Liberation Army was running a secret project alongside the publicly declared work of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This included experiments on a small number of coronaviruses with a close genetic likeness to Covid-19."

"In Chat With Musk, Kennedy Pushes Right-Wing Ideas and Misinformation," was the headline the New York Times put over a recent (June 6, 2023, print newspaper) news article about Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk. It

11/05/2023

Maybe Google would be getting lavishly positive coverage from the New York Times even without paying the $100 million. But should Times readers have to rely on the Wall Street Journal, a competing paper, to understand the financial relationship between the Times and the Big Tech companies that the Times is supposed to be providing editorially independent coverage of?

"New York Times to Get Around $100 Million From Google Over Three Years" is the headline over a Wall Street Journal news article amplifying a brief February 6 Times press release ("The New York Times Company and Google Expand Agreement on News and

23/02/2023

A news article and photo cutline in Thursday's New York Times refer to Ohio as "a deep-red state that Mr. Trump won in the 2016 and 2020 elections."

It's true that Ohio has been trending more Republican lately, but to call it "deep red" is probably an overstatement.

A news article and photo cutline in Thursday's New York Times refer to Ohio as "a deep-red state that Mr. Trump won in the 2016 and 2020 elections." It's true that Ohio has been trending more Republican lately, but to call it "deep red" is probably an

08/01/2023

An arts section piece on Columbia University's new business school buildings includes this sentence: "Glenn Hubbard, the former business school dean who brought the project to fruition, saw the need to break free from fealty to the unregulated free market economy that over decades has led to extraordinary wealth concentration."

I found the sentence puzzling. What "unregulated" economy existed over the decades to cause the wealth concentration? We have a lot of regulations here in America.

An arts section piece on Columbia University's new business school buildings includes this sentence: "Glenn Hubbard, the former business school dean who brought the project to fruition, saw the need to break free from fealty to the unregulated free

02/01/2023

In the latest development in the Ochs-Sulzberger family's ongoing campaign against nepotism, an opinion column in today's New York Times declares Clarence and Virginia Thomas as the "most egregious Nepo couple." Nepo is short for nepotism. This is really something—a newspaper whose publisher is a fifth-generation member of the family whose trust controls it, denouncing for nepotism, of all people, Clarence Thomas—who lived as a child in a one-room shack in Pin Point, Georgia, with a dirt floor and no plumbing.

In the latest development in the Ochs-Sulzberger family's ongoing campaign against nepotism, an opinion column in today's New York Times declares Clarence and Virginia Thomas as the "most egregious Nepo couple." Nepo is short for nepotism. This is really

12/12/2022

On Thursday, New York Times unionized newsroom employees walked off the job. One feature of the rally in support of their contract demands was participation of the broader labor movement.

On Thursday, New York Times unionized newsroom employees walked off the job. One feature of the rally in support of their contract demands was participation of the broader labor movement. A representative of the Communications Workers of America

21/11/2022

A front-page Sunday New York Times article carries the online headline "Ci**rs, Booze, Money: How a Lobbying Blitz Made Sports Betting Ubiquitous." The investigative journalist explanation that this is all the fault of business buying off politicians breaks down when you realize that people were betting on sports before it became legal, and also that the New York Times has also gotten deep into the business of promoting sports betting.

A front-page Sunday New York Times article carries the online headline "Ci**rs, Booze, Money: How a Lobbying Blitz Made Sports Betting Ubiquitous." A sidebar summarizes "Key Findings from The Times' Investigation of Sports Betting." The investigative

14/11/2022

No one is flying the jets "tax free." When the New York Times lets climate-change activists make false claims unlabeled as such, while slapping a prominent "lie" marker on Trump and his allies, it's the sort of thing that undercuts whatever reputation the newspaper has left for political independence and factual reliability.

The New York Times has become increasingly strident about labeling as a "lie" false claims about the 2020 election. A front page news article on Saturday, for example, reporting on the victory of a Democratic Senate candidate in Arizona, described the

07/11/2022

There's no mistaking which side the New York Times is on in tomorrow's election. On page A2, under the headline "The Consequences of the Midterms," is a question-and-answer-style interview with Astead Herndon, "a Times national reporter." He explains, "If the U.S. elects lawmakers who spread conspiracy theories and who promise to tear down tenets of democracy, that will embolden autocratic leaders in other countries and weaken the United States' standing in the world."

There's no mistaking which side the New York Times is on in tomorrow's election. On page A2, under the headline "The Consequences of the Midterms," is a question-and-answer-style interview with Astead Herndon, "a Times national reporter." He explains,

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