SubscribeNYT Explains Why The JFK Plot Was Not News
From our media masters at the New York Times:
Talk to the Newsroom:
June 4, 2007
Suzanne Daley, The Times’s national editor, is answering reader questions June 4 through 8, 2007.
The J.F.K. Airport Bomb Plot
Q. I live in California and was astounded yesterday to look at my print edition of The Times for the article on the J.F.K. bomb plot and to find it back on page A30!
What has happened with the news judgment of your colleagues? A terrorist plot that could have badly damaged the entire economy of the nation, including those of us who live in the Bay Area, and it’s relegated to the level of bridge club reports. You might wish to suggest to your editors that your readers do not live in a vacuum, that we do have alternative sources for news and they only make The Times look foolish with such ineptitude. No wonder your circulation and advertising are falling; your editors are turning a once-honored newspaper into a dinosaur in the electronic age.
– Richard Godfrey, San Francisco
Q. Could you offer some insights on how The Times decided to play the story about the alleged J.F.K. terror plot? It was noticeably different than the way the other leading national papers played it; your placement (Metro) and coverage have been more skeptical. I’m particularly curious about why it was not considered a national story, but rather, a local one. Thanks.
– Barbara, Manhattan
A. Here’s the basic thinking on the J.F.K. story: In the years since 9/11, there have been quite a few interrupted terrorist plots. It now seems possible to exercise some judgment about their gravity. Not all plots are the same. In this case, law enforcement officials said that J.F.K. was never in immediate danger. The plotters had yet to lay out plans. They had no financing. Nor did they have any explosives. It is with all that in mind, that the editors in charge this weekend did not put this story on the front page.
In truth, the decision was widely debated even within this newsroom. At the front page meeting this morning, we took an informal poll and a few editors thought the story should have been more prominently played. Some argued it should have been fronted, regardless of the lameness of the plot, simply because it was what everyone was talking about.
And Mr. Godfrey, as to dinosaur-ism: we had the story up on nytimes.com before 1 p.m. on Saturday. The official press conference on the subject had not even started.
People like Ms. Daley are the experts judging on the “lameness” of the plot?
Ms. Daley joined The Times in 1978 as a copy girl and became a reporter for the metropolitan desk in 1982, covering over the next 10 years a range of issues, including transportation, housing, the homeless and foster care. She became an editor on the desk in 1992, and the deputy metropolitan editor in 1994. The following year, she went overseas as South Africa bureau chief, then four years later, Paris bureau chief. She returned to New York as education editor in 2002. In 2004, Ms. Daley was also given responsibility for coverage of social trends, like those in child-rearing, religion and technology’s impacts, and helped develop the Thursday Styles section. In 2005, she was named national editor.
Oh, my sides.
Thank you, Ms. Daley.
That explains everything.
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14 Responses to “NYT Explains Why The JFK Plot Was Not News”
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June 7th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Social trends, education and the Thursday Style section. Well, at least no one can say she’s not well qualified.
June 7th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
This is pathetic. The only good thing about it is that it provides an example of why the NY Times should be given no credibility as to any serious issue.
June 7th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
“lameness of the plot”
I wonder how lame the NYT would have claimed the 9/11 plot to be if they had been stopped at the gate. After all, “They had no financing. Nor did they have any explosives.” They were just humble, peace loving muslims who wanted to fly on a plane.
June 7th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Ms. Daley was “the deputy metropolitan editor in 1994″
I would gather that most of the Times subscribers and purchasers are in the New York area. Given Ms Daley’s experience as a metro editor, I would think that a bomb plot on a local facility would be of interest to the majority of its customers, regardless of the prominence of the target and the extent of planning. If the Yanks ever win the world series again, it would be on Page One above the fold, No?
A while back, when the Feds busted up the Florida crew in the Sears Tower sting, it was big news in our local papers as well as the rest of the country. If the Chicago papers put this story on page 30, they would have been laughed out of town. However, since the Times feels that the only audiences worth courting are the national media outlets, what do they care? See you in bankruptcy court…
June 7th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Since she is an expert on foster care, being as how she wrote a couple of stories on it a while back…..I wonder if she could point out how many kids would be in foster care now if the JFK plot had come to fruition, and those kid’s parents had been immolated?
I already know how this works….the NYT says the whole thing is lame because the perps are a bunch of amateur asswipes….but!!! If they had succeeded, the NYT would have front page screaming headlines on how Bush and his entire administration let this country down by not recognizing the obvious threat these terrorists posed.
In a typical coward liberal esque fashion, regardless of the outcome of anything, they will find fault with it. I sincerely hope that during the attacks that are coming, their entire building is eradicated with everyone in it. Lets see them coo and fawn about islam then….those ignorant iguana brained asshats…..God….I just cannot fathom that kind of stupidity in an adult.
June 7th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Gees SJ, Have you learned nothing?
Bush not only knew about the plot but him and his Big Oil Buddies were going to finance it.
Bushhalliburtoncheneyco were the masterminds.
June 7th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Paris Hilton is front page news - but a terrorist plot to blow up JFK is lame - only in a liberals mind.
What a crock.
From the masterminds of two-faced liberal insanity - those vaulted protectors of ’separation of church and state’ - a middle school took their students to a mosque to ‘learn about islam and the muslim people’ - but claimed that the church (which was within walking distance of the school - a Middle school) wasn’t ‘available’. . . What hypocrisy. What nonsence. What indoctrination.
June 7th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Gees SJ, Have you learned nothing?
Ha! 1st, I have learned more in my time on S&L about worldly affairs and just how abysmal the systems that govern us are, I couldnt begin to tell you all I have absorbed due to you guys and this site.
Forewarned is forearmed…and just like the nosy neighbors who pointed and laughed when the bomb shelter was built in the back yard…..these holes that ignore islam and it’s pledge of death to all will also be banging on the door to get in when it starts……and like then, I will comfortably tell them all to eff off and go read an article on lindsay lohan, or paris, or another dough brained celebrity considered more newsworthy than an attempt to blow up an airport fuel terminal.
Bush and his entourage planned the entire thing. He even hired Osama to issue all those threats, and gave him a Haliburton funded condo in the 72 virgin islands while he plots yet again to remove all of the interstate highways overnight making it impossible for liberals democrats or anarchists to find their way to the next protest.
The highways will be placed on milk cartons nationwide…and a huge reward for their return will be offered as well…..while that diversion is keeping the public unaware of Bush’s next plan to cash in on beachfront property by moving Florida to Montana on huge trucks supplied by Haliburton….and granting Nation status to Disneyworld as the first Island in North America to be ruled by rats. Wait…we already are….ok, my bad.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Here’s a joke I got that fits perfectly (identities have been changed to enhance the guilty):
A NYT editor was seated next to a 10-year-old girl (of a conservative persuasion) on an airplane. Being bored, he turned to the girl and said, “Let’s talk. I”ve heard that flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.”
The girl, who was reading a book on American history, closed it slowly and said to the guy, “What would you like to talk about?”
Oh, I don’t know,” said the guy. “How about international terrorism?”
“OK,” she said. “That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow and a deer all eat the same stuff… grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?”
The guy thought about it and said, “Hmmm, I have no idea.”
To which the girl replied, “Do you really feel qualified to discuss international terrorism when you don”t know sh*t?”
June 7th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
That was perfect.
Mind if I borrow it?
June 7th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Not at all 1st. I think that joke fits a lot of threads we have been discussing here. Agree?
BTW. I have to chuckle over her pic. She just exudes intelligence and insightful thinking.
June 7th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
As I said when posting on another entry here about the Times, Harrison Salisbury must be turning over in his grave.
June 8th, 2007 at 1:34 am
How many times do I need to repeat this?
Imagine if the attacks had been foiled on 9/10:
Terrorist plots are always just plots… until they’re acted upon.
June 8th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
And I am sure that India brick making story above the page 1 fold held more sway with New Yorkers anyway right?