Monday, May 12, 2008

Law Prof Sees "A Puzzling Omission" at NYT

George Washington University Law School Professor Orin Kerr posts at the Volokh Conspiracy “A Puzzling Omission.” I make a few comments below the star line.

Kerr begins - - -

I don't think it's a secret that The New York Times tends to be particularly one-sided when reporting on matters of concern to The New York Times. Given that, perhaps everyone expects that a Times story on conservative support for a federal reporter's privilege is going to be as much a work of advocacy as a work of reporting.

Still, isn't it a bit odd that Saturday's story on the reporters' privilege doesn't disclose that both of the credited authors, Eric Lichtblau and Philip Shenon, have been personally involved recently in high-profile DOJ leak investigations? Lichtblau was himself a target after he co-authored the 2005 NSA surveillance story. And Philip Shenon was one of the two reporters who had his phone records subpoened in the Valerie Plame leak investigation (the other was Judith Miller). I don't know the official standards for journalistic ethics, but it seems pretty fishy to me that Lichtblau & Shenon didn't disclose their background in the story.
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Comments:

I'll leave Kerr's post stand without comment except to provide this comment on Kerr's thread by Charlie in Colorado:
I don't think it's an issue of "liberal bias" except to the extent that Lichtblau and Shenon are apparently presumed to be liberal, and have an obvious reason to be less than perfectly objective.

But it would seem unlikely that Mike Nifong would be hired to report on prosecutorial abuse, wouldn't it?


1 comments:

Ex-prosecutor said...

The latest edition of the email version of the Vanderbilt alumni news includes this review of Houston Baker's book Betrayal:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/
la-et-book18apr18,0,7311336.story

According to the review, the book is about how black intellectuals have abandoned the ideals of the civil rights era. Apparently, Professor Baker believes that he has not and, thus, is free to criticize those who have.

The writings I've seen at Durham in Wonderland from various of the Group of 88 make me feel like I've had a silent stroke - none of it makes any sense to me. I can't imagine their students can do other than listen to the lectures in bewilderment.

Currently, I am reading, for the 3rd time I believe, Churchill's volumes on the WWII. They are powerfully and beautifully written. I'm afraid that today's college students are not taught from such works but instead from pointless drivel.