[mint2]

Regardless of what infographic makers declare, the NYT newsroom is not “left” leaning.

Their coverage is much more complicated than left vs right, but one theme is they don’t question the loudest narratives, and they hold grudges when they perceive someone to not give them enough access.

The right tends to be louder and more uniform and persistent in messaging, so that coloring often gets unconsciously added to articles rather than the journalists taking a step back and analyzing the whole picture.

It’s the quick/lazy way to write stories after all, and journalists have deadlines. The author may be left leaning and some of that may even show, but a little left leaning flavor doesn’t mask that it’s based on the right’s take.

The choice of coverage also is very herd like, not left or right.

The NYT also goes out of the way to appear fair and balanced, trying to find the “average” in stories. But as anyone but the NYT knows, averages are skewed easily.

[thegrim33]

Well here's a challenge for you, we can easily put your viewpoint to the test:

Go on the NYT website right now and find me a single article currently on the front page that's negative about leftist policies or politicians, or a single article that's positive about rightist policies or politicians.

I bet you can't find any.

Repeat this experiment, any minute, any hour, any day, any year, for the last 10 years, and you will get the same exact results.

[mtalantikite]

Just a quick look, here's one that plays into the mainstream narrative that Hamas is hiding out in hospitals and schools and therefore it's understandable to bomb them: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/10/world/middleeast/airstrik...

[golergka]

That's just a fact, its not a matter of opinion or leaning.

[mtalantikite]

Regardless of whether or not Hamas is hiding out amongst civilians, those civilians are still entitled to human rights protections under international law. The comment section on that article says it all; a bunch of people largely agreeing that it's the Palestinians fault they are getting killed in their shelters.

But that is tangential to the discussion in this thread, which is that the NY Times is leftist. It's not. It, along with most of it's readership, is your typical establishment news organization in the US. Nothing status-quo shaking coming out of the NY Times.

Here's a quick search on how a leftist publication covered something like the bombing of al-Shifa hospital: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-gaza-propagan...

[aguaviva]

It's a fact that they've been using hospitals for non-medical purposes to some extent.

However, it's also a fact that the Israeli government has been attempting to milk these finds for far more than they're worth, to an extent beyond embellishment and closer to outright fabrication (c.f. the alleged "command center" under al-Shifa, the Hamas "shift schedule" that was really just an ordinary Arabic calendar, and so on).

In short: yes Hamas is bad, and all that. But for its own part, the Israeli government never seems to miss an opportunity to leverage available circumstances to undermine its own credibility.

[ImJamal]

Was that on the front page? I just checked and couldn't find it there.

[mtalantikite]

It was, but it's fallen off at this point. Now most of the front page and editorial is about the US presidential debate that is about to happen, the coverage of which looks like any other mainstream establishment news publication in the US.

Compare that to an actual leftist publication like The Nation, where the second most popular article is literally about the enduring legacy of Marx's Capital (lol): https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/wendy-brown-marx-c...

Or over at Jacobin where this is the top story: https://jacobin.com/2024/09/ruwa-romman-dnc-speech-palestine

[consteval]

Does that make a difference or are y'all just constantly moving goalposts to fuel the narrative that media is inherently left-leaning?

Because it's really not - especially not in the US. Go look through their articles. How many serve corporate interests? How many are fundamentally ultra-capitalists?

You guys act like these are commies. No, they're right-leaning, just not far right insane wackos (Fox News). You're right, they're not out here questioning how black Kamala is. No, that absolutely does not make them left wing.

[dgfitz]

> ...to fuel the narrative that media is inherently left-leaning?

Right around this time 8 years ago, the election was over... in the media. Clinton won, trump didn't, in like September of 2016. Like, the world was collectively shocked. Because, according to the media, trump was cooked.

How does that square?

[sudosysgen]

A big part of why Clinton won in the media while her rivals didn't is because she was the least left-leaning Democrat president candidate since, well, Clinton. Clinton's' vast corporate support is because she would lean to the right of the average American on most economic issues and was business as usual, in vast opposition to her rival.

Compare for example media treatment of Sanders or even Warren when he opposed her and you can see that it's not her leftist tendencies that made her win in the media.

[aguaviva]

Find me a single article currently on the front page that's negative about leftist policies or politicians,

Found on the front page of the NYT website, just now, after a few seconds of skimming:

  Kathleen Kingsbury
  The Question Kamala Harris Couldn’t Answer

[squigz]

Let's just assume you're right, and this experiment is true a majority of the time... wouldn't another possible explanation be that that's a perfectly fair representation of things? Both sides aren't always equal. Weighing the coverage of both sides to be equal would be misleading.

[gamepsys]

If the unbiased view is leftist then an unbiased newspaper would be left leaning.

[squigz]

I'm pretty sure that's what I just said, yes.

[cess11]

When I visit now the screen fills with headlines that are sympathetic to Harris and seems to support her candidacy.

Obviously not a leftist bias.

[sealeck]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/20/opinion/kamala-harris-dem...

This was on the front page a couple of weeks ago

[relaxing]

Ross Douthat is still employed so your assertion falls flat on its face.

Aside from that, right now I see an item claiming Harris has flip-flopped on progressive policies.

[dgfitz]

> Ross Douthat is still employed so your assertion falls flat on its face.

I have no idea who that is.

> Aside from that, right now I see an item claiming Harris has flip-flopped on progressive policies.

I have no idea if this is true. Has she? Who is the authority on that?

[relaxing]

Then go read the NYT front page and find out? He’s always there because he’s pure clickbait.

Whether it’s true or not is irrelevant. “Flip flop” is an insult in politics.

[dgfitz]

Uh, no? Why the hell does anyone read mainstream media anymore?

[greenie_beans]

find anything about gaza

[segasaturn]

It's not left vs. right, it's establishment vs. anti-establishment. New York Times was a major cheerleader for the illegal US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and uncritically repeated falsehoods from George W. Bush, who is not exactly a leftist hero.

[cruffle_duffle]

It also was unquestioningly supportive of any and all covid NPI's. NYT was one of the major publications that would routinely report the "covid kill rate" at like 4% despite massive data suggesting it was at least one or two orders of magnitude off depending on the age bracket.

[DinoDad13]

Any reasonably fair news coverage is considered left wing now-a-days.