NYT Cites FAIR’s Criticism of NYT

The New York Times‘ explainer (8/17/16) after Donald Trump hired an executive from Breitbart News.

It’s not every day that the New York Times cites FAIR—and certainly not for our criticism of the New York Times.

But in an explainer about Donald Trump hiring Breitbart News’ Stephen  Bannon as campaign CEO, the Times (8/17/16) did reference FAIR’s criticism of the Times’ handling of the distorted ACORN story, which was promoted by Andrew Breitbart. The Times’ Jonah Engel Bromwich wrote:

In 2009, on his site Big Government, Mr. Breitbart released videos of workers for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (better known as ACORN) that appeared to show employees of the community organization advising clients on criminal activities. The videos, filmed by conservative activists, led contributions to ACORN to plummet, and the organization announced in 2010 that it was closing all its offices.

Liberal media watchdog groups, including FAIR, criticized the mainstream media, including the Times, for much of its reporting on the story. The Times’ public editor at the time, Clark Hoyt, wrote about how conservatives and liberals viewed the story differently, exemplifying the effect that outlets like Breitbart had on the public conversation.

Unfortunately, the Times didn’t provide a link to our criticism, but you can read it here:

• “Working the Refs: The Right, the Media and ACORN,” by Peter Hart (FAIR Blog, 10/7/09)
• “NYT and the ACORN Hoax” (FAIR Action Alert, 3/11/10)
• “NYT Admits It Was Wrong About ACORN, But Still Gets It Wrong,” by Peter Hart (FAIR Blog, 3/23/10)
• “Falling for the ACORN Hoax,” by Veronica Cassidy (Extra!, 4/10)
• “More on NYT and ACORN,” by Peter Hart (FAIR Blog, 4/5/10).