Reporting on the Senate’s first hearing on the New START agreement, The New York Times Peter Baker reports on May 18th:

The Obama team deflected the criticism, insisting that nothing in the treaty would inhibit missile defense plans.

Specifically, here is what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified:

The treaty does not constrain our missile defense efforts. … Nothing in the New START Treaty constrains our missile defense efforts.

This language mirrors the original White House fact sheet on New Start which read:

The New START Treaty does not contain any constraints on testing, development or deployment of current or planned U.S.

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Reporting on President Barack Obama’s recent trip to Iowa, New York Times journalists Helene Cooper and Jeff Zeleny wrote on April 27th:

The president conceded that the rising level of the budget deficit “keeps me up at night.” But he extolled the benefits of the economic stimulus plan and took issue with his Congressional critics, who he said had tried to take credit for local projects even though they voted against the $789 billion measure last year.

President Obama’s stimulus may have only totaled $789 billion when Congressional critics voted against it, but its costs have increased since then. According to … Continue Reading

On May 14, Peter Baker (White House correspondent for New York Times since 2008) authored a highly misleading report on the administration’s plan for its stewardship of the US nuclear arsenal. Baker’s article “Obama Expands Modernization of Nuclear Arsenal” touts the release of a presidential report to Congress outlining the President’s plan to spend $80 billion over ten years on facilities and programs related to US defense nuclear weapons programs. Congress required this plan before the submission of New START to the Senate for ratification. Both the title and body of the article, however, failure to distinguish … Continue Reading

Peter Behr and Jenny Mandel report for The New York Times that “wind power weathered a second year of recession to post new records of generation.”

But what Behr and Mandel do not report is that wind producers are also enjoying record subsidies. The 2009 stimulus bill includes $16.7 billion for renewable energy and energy efficiency and $4.0 billion towards loan guarantees for renewable energy. The government handouts already in place helped as well. An April 2008 study of subsidies for the energy industry finds that wind and solar receive over $20 per kilowatt hour in … Continue Reading

A number of major media outlets, including a column in The New York Times, a post on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and on Newsweek are reporting that Rush Limbaugh said he would move to Costa Rica if the health care bill passed.

“[F]eel free to remind Rush Limbaugh that he promised to move to Costa Rica if health care reform gets implemented,” wrote Times columnist Gale Collins.

“You might remember Rush Limbaugh’s highly publicized promise that if health-care reform became law, he’d move out of the country.” penned Newsweek’s Liz White. “…Well, Rush, pack your bags.”

But if the writers had … Continue Reading

Writing about the mainstream climatologists’ attempt to restore their credibility on March 2nd, John Broder of The New York Times all but dismisses the flaws in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 report:

No scientific body is under more hostile scrutiny than the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which compiles the climate research of hundreds of scientists around the globe into periodic reports intended to be the definitive statement of the science and a guide for policy makers. Critics, citing several relatively minor errors in its most recent report and charges of conflict of interest

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In a February 16, 2010 article entitled “Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds Fear of a Debt Crisis”, New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes erroneously suggests that Congress’ lack of ability to address the national debt is due to “(t)he unwillingness of the two parties to compromise.”

While it is true that Republicans have hardly been in the mood to work with Democrats to pass major legislation, that position has been precisely because every measure brought forward by Democrats, from health care “reform” to cap-and-trade to “jobs” bills will add to

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In the February 8th New York Times, under the headline Bills Stalled, Hospitals Fear Rising Unpaid Care, Reed Abelson reports:

President Obama says he aims to keep trying. But what happens if the health care legislation cannot be revived, and tens of millions of uninsured Americans continue without coverage?

For the nation’s hospitals, at least, the cost of doing nothing in Washington translates into tens of billions of dollars each year in medical bills that go unpaid by patients with little or no insurance.

Abelson then goes on to report that “The number of people without insurance in this country could increase … Continue Reading

Covering President Barack Obama’s upcoming State of the Union proposals, Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in January 25ths New York Times:

For example, the president is calling on Congress to nearly double the child care tax credit for families earning less than $85,000 — a proposal that, if adopted, would lower by $900 the taxes such families owe to the government. But the credit would not be refundable, meaning that families would not get extra money back on a tax refund.

What exactly does Stolberg mean by “extra”? If, come April 15th, a family has had more taken out of their paychecks … Continue Reading

Covering the ongoing health care negotiations between the House and Senate, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Steve Greenhouse report in January 12th New York Times:

President Obama told union leaders at a private White House meeting on Monday that he remained committed to taxing high-cost insurance policies as a way to drive down health costs.
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The 40 percent excise tax would apply to any cost above $8,500 for individual policies and $23,000 for family plans; the Congressional Budget Office has estimated it would generate $149 billion in tax revenues over 10 years, which would help Mr. Obama meet his goal of passing

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Reporting on a new study from Tufts University on the deleterious effects of US farm subsidies on Mexican farming, New York Times reporter Elisabeth Malkin wrote on December 15th:

When American companies cannot compete against imports that they believe are being “dumped” at below-market prices, they are quick to demand remedies from Washington, usually in the form of punitive tariffs. These days, the alleged culprit is often China.

But try looking at things from south of the border and the picture shifts. There, the culprit is just as likely to be the United States, particularly when it comes to agriculture.

While Malkin’s … Continue Reading

Andrew Revkin and Tom Zeller filed a story for the December 9th New York Times on the Copenhagen Climate Conference reporting:

Asked about arguments by diplomats and some protesters that the United States should provide hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to developing nations as reparations, Mr. [Todd] Stern, the special envoy for climate change, bluntly fired back at a news conference. ‘I actually completely reject the notion of a debt or reparations or anything of the like,’ he said. ‘For most of the 200 years since the Industrial Revolution, people were blissfully ignorant of the fact that emissions

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Covering President Barack Obama’s trip to China a Helene Cooper, Michael Wines, and David Sanger by-lined piece in the November 14th New York Times begins:

When President Obama visits China for the first time on Sunday, he will, in many ways, be assuming the role of profligate spender coming to pay his respects to his banker.

That stark fact — China is the largest foreign lender to the United States — has changed the core of the relationship between the United States and the only country with a reasonable chance of challenging its status as the world’s sole superpower.

China is our … Continue Reading

On November 17th, New York Times economic reporter David Leonhardt posted an item titled “A Stimulus That Could Save Money” and opened:

The one highly visible success of the stimulus program has been the cash-for-clunkers program. It induced a boom in vehicle sales this summer that clearly would not have happened otherwise.

Considering the rest of Leonhardt’s article is about the cost benefit analysis of a proposed federal stimulus program for weatherizing homes, you’d hop he would take a paragraph to defend his claim that the cash for clunkers program was a success.

Leonhardt is correct that the program did stimulate car … Continue Reading

The New York Times section “Economix” claims to explain “the science of everyday life.” But in his November 11th write up about the White House endorsement of mandatory paid sick leave, the reporter Steven Greenhouse doesn’t explain anything. Greenhouse opens:

The H1N1 pandemic is raising concerns about people reporting to work sick and spreading the disease. The pandemic has given momentum to Congressional efforts to enact legislation that would guarantee paid sick days to tens of millions of workers — although it is far from clear that such legislation will be enacted. Those legislative efforts received added momentum

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Reporters are usually not responsible for the headlines over their articles, but the headline over Robert Pear’s and David Herszenhorn’s October 7th New York Times article is simply misleading: “Health Care Bill Gets Green Light in Cost Analysis.” Pear and Herszebhorn do report that the Congressional Budget Office “cost analysis” is on the Senate Finance Committee bill, but then they down play the ramifications of the fact, writing:

Republicans, who are overwhelmingly opposed to the legislation, minimized the significance of the cost analysis. They suggested that the “real” bill would be written secretly by Democratic leaders as they combine the

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The October 5th New York Times has an item by Reed Abelson titled “Health Insurance Exchanges: Will They Work?” Abelson reports:

Despite all the disagreement in Washington, every proposal now before Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system includes creation of an insurance “exchange” — a marketplace that would operate something like a Travelocity Web site for insurance policies.
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The risk is that many local markets could end up looking much as they do today — with small businesses and individuals at the mercy of too few insurers wielding too much power in their regions.
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A recent analysis by the Government

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Several days before key Senators introduce that body’s version of controversial global warming “cap-and-trade” legislation, and several months after EPA whistle-blower Dr. Alan Carlin drew attention to the fact that the recent published scientific literature presents a decided tilt against prevailing “global warming” scientific wisdom, the New York Times has run a piece diminishing Dr. Carlin’s stature and findings. The September 24th John M. Broder article reads:

Alan Carlin, a 72-year-old analyst and economist, had labored in obscurity in a little-known office at the Environmental Protection Agency since the Nixon administration.

In June, however, he became a sudden celebrity with the

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Providing “News Analysis” in the September 8th New York Times, Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes under the header Despite Fears, Health Care Overhaul Is Moving Ahead:

While the month of August clearly knocked the White House back on its heels, as Congressional town hall-style meetings exposed Americans’ unease with an overhaul, the uproar does not seem to have greatly altered public opinion or substantially weakened Democrats’ resolve.
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But even after weeks filled with seemingly ominous portents for Mr. Obama’s ambitions, there is evidence that public opinion remains basically supportive of him. Despite intense controversy over the “public option,” a government-backed insurance plan

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The September 4th New York Times reports under the header Some Parents Oppose Obama School Speech that: “President Obama’s plan to deliver a speech to public school students on Tuesday has set off a revolt among conservative parents, who have accused the president of trying to indoctrinate their children with socialist ideas and are asking school officials to excuse the children from listening.” So far so good. Reporters James McKinley and Sam Dillon later add:

The White House has said the speech will emphasize the importance of education and hard work in school, both to the individual and to the

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The New York Times’ Robert Pear and Gardiner Harris have a front page story in the August 18th New York Times on Sen. Kent Conrad’s (D-ND) proposal to increase health insurance competition through nonprofit health care cooperatives. Pear and Harris write:

Prof. Ann Hoyt, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has done extensive research on cooperatives in many industries, said they could serve a useful purpose in health care — just as credit unions compete effectively with banks, prompting them to offer higher interest rates on deposits and lower rates on loans.
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In a study published in March and financed

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In the August 8th edition of The New York Times, columnist John M. Broder, who writes frequently for the paper on global warming issues penned a column titled, “Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security.” Broder reported on recent studies and exercises conducted by the military that looked at the security implications of global climate change. He then concluded:

a growing number of policy makers say that the world’s rising temperatures, surging seas and melting glaciers are a direct threat to the national interest. If the United States does not lead the world in reducing fossil-fuel consumption and thus

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The August 12th New York Time includes an anonymous “Frequently Asked Questions” item on health care which claims:

Abortion opponents say the legislation would use taxes to subsidize insurance that could cover the procedure. Under the House bill, health plans could choose to cover abortion, but they generally could not use federal money to pay for the procedure and instead would have to use money from the premiums paid by beneficiaries. Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, said the bill would keep current restrictions on the use of federal money for abortion.

Well if Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, says … Continue Reading

In the August 8th New York Times, John Broder reports:

Arctic melting also presents new problems for the military. The shrinking of the ice cap, which is proceeding faster than anticipated only a few years ago, opens a shipping channel that must be defended and undersea resources that are already the focus of international competition.

Considering that this paragraph comes under an article titled “Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. security”, one would hope Broder knew he was on solid ground here. Unfortunately he is not. The Arctic ice cap – which principally, and as referenced in this story, … Continue Reading

The New York Times’ Matthew Wald has a very decent article on the Senate’s approval of $2 billion in new funding for the Obama administration’s Cash for Clunkers program. His August 6 Senate Adds Cash to ‘Clunkers’ Plan article reports:

The Obama administration has been arguing that the savings on gas spending would offset costs, and that the stimulus to the economy would be another benefit.

Wald does a good job questioning the environmental benefits of the bill quoting transportation expert and researcher Lee Schipper who points out, “The new car doesn’t replace the clunker, it replaces the previous first car … Continue Reading

John Broder and James Kanter had a story in the July 7th New York Times titled Despite Shift on Climate by U.S., Europe Is Wary. The article accurately reveals that the U.S. stance on a binding if selective international treaty limiting greenhouse gas emissions remains, in practice if not rhetoric, consistent under President Obama as it was under President Bush. With President Clinton having undertaken the gesture of signing, but refusing to seek ratification of, the Kyoto Protocol, this continues a long chain of consistent U.S. policy. One key characterization, however, presents a materially different circumstance than is the … Continue Reading

In a otherwise fair July 6th article on Health co-ops, the New York Times Kevin Sack reports:

As Congress and the White House debate a national health care overhaul, many in Washington agree that one reason health premiums have grown at four times the rate of inflation this decade is a dearth of competition. In 40 of 42 states studied by the American Medical Association last year, the two largest health insurers claimed at least half of all enrollment.

Sack then goes on to explain how some Democrats believe government funded co-ops could provide needed competition. But Sack never explains why … Continue Reading

The New York Times’s Cornelia Dean wrote an article published June 2nd, Women Are Seen Bridging Gap in Science Opportunities, that highlights the findings that women scientists and engineers are making gains in academia and that the gap between boys’ and girls’ performance in mathematics has been almost eliminated. It’s certainly appropriate to applaud signs of women’s progress, but this article mistakenly accepts the presumption that absent discrimination and other nefarious factors women and men would be equally represented in these fields and excludes any discussion of the problems facing men in universities.

For example, she writes:

Although

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The May 8 New York Times Magazine ran a piece by Nicholas Schmidle titled “Wanted: A New Home for My Country”, repeating debunked mythology about atoll nations being submerged by rising sea levels as a result of Man-made global warming.

Scmidle writes: “Even a slight rise in global sea levels, which many scientists predict will occur by the end of this century, could submerge most of the Maldives.”

However, there is no evidence of sea level rise around the Maldives, at all. This claim was popularized in “An Inconvenient Truth”, prompting the only court to examine its merits (Dimmock v. Secretary … Continue Reading

Reporting about President Obama’s upcoming meeting with Mayor Bloomberg, former Speaker Gingrich, and Rev. Al Sharpton, the New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny misreports the administration’s new position about the future of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program:

The private meeting comes on the same day that Mr. Obama will announce his intention to extend the school voucher program in the District of Columbia. The program provides scholarships to about 1,700 poor students so they can attend private schools, but it was scheduled to end this year, creating uncertainty for the students already enrolled.

While Mr. Obama remains opposed to voucher programs,

… Continue Reading