Friday, February 08, 2008

Shocker: NY Times Gives Byline to Guantanamo Critic, Plays Dumb When Caught

The relentless bias of the New York Times is exposed once again and sure enough, the alleged paper of record, with their layers of editors and factcheckers, claims they "were not aware" the author of a front-page story was an "outspoken critic" of U.S. policy.

Sure. And I have some oceanfront property in Nebraska up for sale.

Maybe a Times editor is interested in purchasing it.
The New York Times ran a front-page story critical of the Guantanamo anti-terror prison without checking to find out that its co-author was a bitter critic of the jail and of US policy, the newspaper acknowledged yesterday.

The paper's editors "were not aware" of the "outspoken position" of British freelancer Andy Worthington, who shared the byline on the article, according to an Editors' Note in the newspaper.

The story, which appeared Tuesday, described the case of an Afghan man who died in Guantanamo after five years' detention, allegedly on false charges of being a Taliban commander.

The newspaper acknowledged yesterday that its editors did not look up Worthington's Web site.

"Like many decent-minded citizens of the world I had been deeply concerned, from the moment Guantanamo opened in January 2002, that the US Administration's response to 9/11 was both cruel and misguided," Worthington wrote in an "About Me" section of the site.

The Times said that Worthington "did some initial reporting" for the article "but was not involved in all of it" and that the information he provided was confirmed by the newspaper.

It said that he should not have been listed as co-author and that his point of view and contribution to the article should have mentioned.

Worthington described himself as a freelance historian and journalist who wrote a sharply critical book about the prison, "The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774Detainees in America's Illegal Prison."

He declined to comment directly on the Editors' Note yesterday but said he would be "extremely disappointed if anyone were to presume" from the note that his book was not well researched.
That's completely beside the point. Worthington is not an objective reporter, and a simple check of his background would reveal his biases for all to see.

Why, look here, he's all over that non-partisan home to fair and balanced journalism, The Huffington Post.

Hey, what's this, Worthington is also at the far-left Counterpunch, another bastion of objective journalism.

Who's this guy Worthington at AlterNet defending Jose Padilla?

Why, it's the same guy with a New York Times byline.

Shocking, isn't it?

Over at Guantanamo Blog, there's also a guy named Andy Worthington.

Why yes, it's the same author.

Antiwar Radio also lists an Andy Worthington. I'll go out on a limb and say it's the same guy.

Amazon lists the book by Worthington entitled
The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 759 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison.

But the editors at the New York Times "were not aware" of his background.

Paging Clark Hoyt, come in Mr. Hoyt.

Hot Air, Ed Driscoll and NewsBusters link. Thanks!

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