« Rats on the run at Atlantic Yards? | Main | Atlantic Yards: How Brooklyn's Arenafication is Going »
July 19, 2011
Times article on arena rising finally mentions Friedman decision, acknowledges reasons for opponents to "complain" (but doesn't analyze the public interest); essential narrative is Ratner's triumph
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder conducts an excellent step-by-step vivisection of yesterday's New York Times story on Atlantic Yards.
The New York Times today finally does mention the important judicial ruling last week, only to give it short shrift in a wide-ranging article focusing on the under-construction arena.
It was initially headlined online as After Years of Delays, Atlantic Yards Arena Begins Taking Shape, later amended to Atlantic Yards Arena Takes Shape, but Protests Carry On, and in print as "An Arena Rises at Last, But Protests Carry On."
The article, despite rounding-up criticisms and mention of the documentary Battle for Brooklyn, maintains an overall narrative of triumph: the fact that an arena's coming. After all, the photos all illustrate construction, not community impact.
My criticisms include:
- the suggestion that only "opponents" should care about the public interest
- the downplaying of the significance of last week's court decision
- the Times's acceptance of undocumented claims regarding naming rights
- the Times's portrayal of Forest City Ratner's response to the rat problem
- the Times's unquestioning description of the developer's use of the EB-5 program
- the calculation of construction jobs
- the downplaying of the value of the documentary Battle for Brooklyn
- the shorthand description of Daniel Goldstein's settlement
Posted by eric at July 19, 2011 9:21 AM