NY Times Looks on Bright Side: ’72 Percent’ of Released Gitmo Detainees Not Out Committing Terror
New York Times legal reporter Charlie Savage displayed a novel angle on terrorist recidivism in his story on recent outbreaks of violence among the terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay: "Despair Drives U.S. Detainees To Stage Revolt." (Is your heart breaking yet?) Savage wrote on Thursday's front page:
But the relative calm on display to visiting reporters last week was deceiving. Days earlier, guards had raided Camp Six and locked down protesting prisoners who had blocked security cameras, forbidding them to congregate in a communal area. A hunger strike is now in its third month, with 93 prisoners considered to be participating -- more than half the inmates and twice the number before the raid.
New York Times’s Massacre Coverage Permeated With Aggressive Push for Gun Control
The New York Times continues to helpfully lay out a path for Obama to order up gun control legislation in the wake of the tragedy at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Tuesday's lead story by Jennifer Steinhauer and Charlie Savage wasted no time in politicizing things: "Pro-Gun Democrats Signaling Openness to Limits; Town Starts the Mournful task of Saying Goodbye."
Demonstrating rapidly shifting attitudes toward gun control in the aftermath of a massacre in a Connecticut school, many pro-gun Congressional Democrats -- including Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader and a longstanding gun rights supporter -- signaled an openness Monday to new restrictions on guns.
Speaker Boehner Bashes NYT’s Charlie Savage for False Reporting on Fast and Furious Scandal
Republican House Speaker John Boehner strongly objected to a slanted story on the Fast and Furious scandal by Times legal reporter Charlie Savage posted at the New York Times on Tuesday (it evidently did not make it into print).
The Daily Caller reported: "A spokesman for Speaker of the House John Boehner told The Daily Caller on Tuesday night that the New York Times published a false story alleging the speaker is trying to cut a deal with Attorney General Eric Holder over congressional subpoenas related to the Operation Fast and Furious scandal."
The Times reported late on Tuesday that Boehner had “opened direct negotiations with the Department of Justice aimed at resolving a dispute over subpoenaed information related to the botched gun-trafficking investigation dubbed Operation Fast and Furious.” The story ran under the headline “Boehner in talks with Justice Dept. on gun-running inquiry.”
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel, however, said the report is not true. He alleged that it illustrated a Holder-friendly bias among some establishment media outlets.
Boehner's office blogged the matter Tuesday:
This story shows how the mainstream media is ignoring this scandal and covering up for the Department of Justice. Staff for the Speaker, other leadership offices, and Chairman Issa have been encouraging Attorney General Holder's staff to comply for weeks or months to no avail, but there have certainly been no direct talks between the Speaker and Attorney General, and the department is still stonewalling."
Savage has previously downplayed the Fast and Furious 'gun-walking' scandal, when the Justice Department signed off on a plan that allowed guns to flow untracked into the U.S. and Mexico, putting thousands of illegally purchased firearms on the street, one of which led to the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
An October 2011 Savage story on Fast and Furious showed him in spin mode for the administration, emphasizing Attorney General Holder's wish 'to move past the political furor' and completely omitting a Holder admission of "inaccuracy" emphasized by the Washington Post. A December 2011 interview of Holder by Savage also downplayed the scandal, even allowing the attorney general to play the race card against his conservative critics.
(H/T Seton Motley)