Why does the NY Times ignore America's poverty?

[Karmadillo]

Strange the voice of liberal America would keep mum about this sort of thing. I wonder who benefits?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/nyt-s14.shtml

The newspaper that proclaims as its motto “All the news that’s fit to print” was forced to make a damning admission on Sunday. In answer to a reader’s query, the public editor of the New York Times was compelled to acknowledge that over the past decade the newspaper had done little to inform its readers about the desperate poverty and social inequality prevailing in New Orleans. Both were exposed conspicuously and tragically in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

It is impossible to deny the obvious: the horrific impact of the disaster in terms of human life and suffering was the product not primarily of a natural disaster, but rather of a social catastrophe that has been deepening in America for decades. A vast portion of the population has been driven into desperate poverty, and, in New Orleans, tens of thousands were left without the means to heed an evacuation order. They were abandoned to fend for themselves against the storm, and then left without aid for days as the weakest among them died in the city’s streets.

“Poverty so pervasive that it hampered evacuation would seem to have been worthy of the Times’s attention before it emerged as a pivotal challenge two weeks ago,” wrote the editor, Byron Calame, adding that coverage of issues surrounding the city’s levee system would also have been merited.

“Yet a look back over the past 10 years of Times coverage of New Orleans in its news columns raises serious questions about how well the paper helped readers recognize and understand these two major problems that have compounded the devastation and tragedy of the storm,” he continued.

The editor went on to acknowledge that, while New Orleans had the greatest proportion of its inhabitants living in poverty of any American city outside of Detroit, the Times’s coverage of the city consisted for the most part of “stylishly written articles about the city’s charm, cuisine and colorful characters.”

more...

[bryant69]

1. The New York TImes isn't the voice of liberal america

They also aren't a New Orlean's newspaper - they are sometimes described as America's paper but that's kind of nonsense - they are a new york paper. They cover New York and national politics - and they've done plenty of writing about New York poverty.

On the other hand, this is a mainstream media source, so screw 'em.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Karmadillo]

5. They've done plenty of writing about New Orleans. It's just

they've chosen to cover some things and not others. The editor in the article acknowledges the skewed coverage. The question then becomes why the neglect took place.

[Missy M]

2. Not much is written about any of the US poverty in both cities and...

rural areas. Our newspapers only write about poverty in other countries and our poor become invisible. They are left with no hope or dreams and poverty becomes a vicious cycle for the children of the poor. I know this country can do better but does anyone care? We read about the CEO who made $20 million for a year and he/she lives in a wonderful mansion, buys $5,000.00 suits and goes to all the charitable events that make them feel all warm and fuzzy because they think they have done their bit.

[ReadTomPaine]

3. I lived in NYC for decades..

New York City, particularly the wealthy sections of Manhattan, isn't well known for recognizing or treating its poor very well. The NYT staff and office culture epitomize this attitude, from my experiences with them. It's hard to empathize with the poor when you live in the old money enclaves of the Upper East Side and have been surrounded by wealth, power and privilege all your life.

This problem isn't going to change.

[lectrobyte]

4. Voice of liberal America? Hardly. And everybody knows that

it's the poor's fault for being poor. I'm being sarcastic on that last part, btw.