Wednesday, October 26, 2011

How the New York Times spins the news (misleadingly) on #occupyoakland

Check out this. Here's a screengrab of what is on the New York Times home page right now (10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, October 26, 2011):


If you click on the link right now, you will get to a page that says this:


The blog headline is much more accurate, in fact almost the exact opposite, of what it says on the Times' home page. (I.e., the home page depicts the protesters as the aggressors, the actual report suggests that the police were the aggressors.)

If you read the article, you will note that the headline could in fact be much improved. It should read, "Oakland police fire teargas, rubber bullets, beanbags, and flash grenades at largely peaceful protesters."

This is one for the ombudsman, no? And for journalism students.

#occupy

2 comments:

Jay Schiavone said...

That headline poked me in the eye, as well. But we're talking about the Times. And the ombudsman... we'll sooner get an apology from the new Executive Editrice.

Unknown said...

Wasn't the NYT's just saying 'we've assigned all Occupy coverage to our blogs' when asked about the low focus on #ows?