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August 26, 2012
New York Times Public Editor says goodbye without a word about Atlantic Yards/Forest City, offers dubious praise for corrections desk
Atlantic Yards Report
If the job description of The New York Times's Public Editor includes "drive Norman Oder to distraction," then the office has been a resounding success.
New York Times Public Editor Arthur Brisbane says goodbye after two years without a word about Atlantic Yards and Forest City Ratner, despite ample opportunity to weigh in on such basic things as whether and how the Times should disclose its business relationship to Forest City, or even the glaring decision to devote such Sports section real estate to photos of Brooklyn Nets advertising.
From his column in tomorrow's paper, Success and Risk as The Times Transforms:
Two years ago, when I wrote my “why on earth” column, I suggested that the pace of change called for a re-emphasis on “transparency, accountability, humility.” Looking back now, I think The Times could do better with these.
The Times is hardly transparent. A reader still has to work very hard to find any Times policies online (though some are tucked away there), and there is still no place where Times editors speak on the issues. As for humility, well, The Times is Lake Wobegon on steroids (everybody’s way above average). I don’t remember many autopsies in which, as we assembled over the body, anyone conceded that maybe this could have been done differently.
The strong suit, though, is the corrections desk, led by Greg Brock, where thousands of errors are somehow adjudicated every year. This is a powerful engine of accountability, unmatched by any other corrections operation I have seen, and a potential foundation element for a portal where The Times could prominently display “transparency, accountability, humility.”
A failure of accountability
Actually, errors aren't always adjudicated well, nor does Brock display “transparency, accountability, humility.”
He's actually kind of a dyspeptic character when challenged, not only by me but by, for example Brad Friedman of The Brad Blog (re ACORN/pimp coverage).
NoLandGrab: Oder is doing Brock a favor in calling him "dyspeptic," since the latter's exchanges with Oder actually make him sound like a sniveling weenie.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, The new Times Public Editor sees role as "smart aggregator" and "forum organizer" (which should mean more attention to public critiques)
Imagine what acknowledgment of public critiques might bring. The Public Editor would actually have had to take seriously the evidence that the Barclays Center naming rights deal was closer to $200 million than $400 million, rather than let his assistant blow me off.
Then the Public Editor would link to news that the evidence was valid.
With Atlantic Yards, as I wrote yesterday, there would be ample opportunity for further inquiry.
Atlantic Yards Report, Times quietly replaces misleading Atlantic Yards graphic, without correction
Atlantic Yards Report, Has the Bloomberg administration "built" more than 130,000 units of affordable housing? No, but that's not what the Times reported
Atlantic Yards Report, Is the arena "a month ahead of schedule"? Times stenography takes Ratner at face value
Posted by eric at August 26, 2012 10:24 AM