The New York Times is plainly uncomfortable with the vote by the American Studies Association in favor of boycotting Israel. Check out this double standard– on the turnout issue.
First, the Times on Bill de Blasio’s victory last November, reporters Javier Hernandez and David Chen:
Jerry Skurnik, a Democratic political consultant, predicted that turnout would be around 1.2 million — about what it was in 2009, when Mayor Bloomberg was widely expected to win a third term. Another Democratic consultant, Bruce N. Gyory, predicted turnout between 1.1 million and 1.25 million. There are 4.3 million active registered voters in New York City.
About 28 percent, huh?
Next, Tamar Lewin writes up the boycott vote in the New York Times a week ago:
There are now three small American academic groups that support a boycott. The Association for Asian American Studies endorsed it in April, and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association did so this month after the vote by the American Studies Association. In that vote, 66 percent supported the boycott, and 30.5 percent opposed it — but only 1,252 of the group’s 5,000 members participated.
About 25 percent. Only? Depends on the context.
Tens of thousands of migrants protest in Tel Aviv and yet the New York Times can’t be bothered to report the story. If the Times were purely interested in readership numbers, the story would be on the front page. Instead they push it aside and let the news wire handle it.
Jodi Rudoren’s too busy to cover the protest, I suppose.
With its recent vote to boycott Israel’s higher-education institutions to protest the country’s treatment of Palestinians, the American Studies Association has itself become the target of widespread criticism and ostracism. It has gone from relative obscurity to prominence as a pariah of the United States higher-education establishment, its experience serving as a cautionary tale for other scholarly groups that might consider taking a similar stand on the Middle East.
As of last week, the boycott also had been denounced by three of the United States’ most prominent higher-education organizations: the American Association of University Professors, the American Council on Education and the Association of American Universities. “Such actions are misguided and greatly troubling, as they strike at the heart of academic freedom,” said the American Council on Education’s president, Molly Corbett Broad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/us/backlash-against-israel-boycott-throws-academic-association-on-defensive.html?hpw&rref=education&_r=0
Yep, NYT editorials are as addicted to spin as MSNBC and Fox News, which are basically infotainment shows for, respectively, the left and the right. I don’t think the NYT editorial department realizes the extent of its yellow yellow journalism. True believers, all three.
It would be a double standard if the New York Times implied voter turnout in the mayoral race was satisfactory. It didn’t say that. It said it was low turnout. Just look at the title of the story:
And the line immediately preceding the paragraph you quoted reiterates the title:
Nice point, Phil!