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December 20, 2006
MIA: the New York Times editorial page on PACB vote
Atlantic Yards Report
The blog that started off life as Times Ratner Report speculates why the NY Times has been silent on Atlantic Yards while all the other dailies have recently posted editorials:
You’d think that, in the run-up to an expected Atlantic Yards vote today by the state Public Authorities Control Board (PACB), the city’s newspapers would have weighed in. Indeed, most have done so.
...
The city’s leading daily, the New York Times, has been silent.I can only speculate about the reasons, but the Times may have been in a deadlock of sorts. The editorial page has generally supported the Atlantic Yards project, though it called, ineffectively and inconsistently, for the city and state not to provide direct subsidies for the project.
Most recently, in August, the page gently advised a possible 15 percent reduction in the project size and called for a longer period in review.
But it hasn’t questioned eminent domain—indeed, the Times is a beneficiary of eminent domain for the new headquarters the parent Times Company is building in partnership with Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner.
The publisher offers both explicit and indirect influence on the editorial page (though not to the newsroom) . So, given that the Times Company agreed to guarantee a loan to the developer, it's not unreasonable to think that the publisher Arthur Sulzberger is rooting for Forest City Ratner’s general success, and that has filtered through to the editorial writers.
Posted by lumi at December 20, 2006 7:07 AM