We all know that the NY Times' writers and reporters and editors are:
(1) among the best educated
(2) probably the highest paid in print publications
(3) perhaps the most respected journalists in the United States.
Well, two out of three ain't bad, except number three is the foundation of a believable free press.
Here is a quote from Yahoo News link to today's NY Times website story:
The potential risk that underfunded pensions pose to both workers and local taxpayers was one of the reasons that President Obama’s bipartisan debt reduction commission — led by Alan K. Simpson, a Republican former senator from Wyoming, and Erskine B. Bowles, a Democrat and former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton — recommended enrolling all newly hired state and local government workers in Social Security after 2020.
Earth to NY Times, the commission never "recommended." It never happened, except in the propoganda mills of the bankers and their slobbering slaves in Congress - and apparently now also in the newspaper business.
Stinky Simpson and Ball-Less Bowles put out a draft, but that was rejected and so the only thing that came out of all those meetings was some droppings from the two chairmen. While I'm sure that Petey Peterson of Bravo fame and his Simpson character grandfather were squeezing their privates in ecstasy at cutting middle class and poor Social Security benefits and making people wait for medical care until 67, even the biggest GOP economics moron in Congress, Paul Ryan, said he wouldn't vote for it.
Who is determining Times editorial policy? Is there some rich man in the world sending messages from some mansion, telling the editors to promote anything that keeps taxes low for the rich.
(I mention this because real taxes on the rich are already lower in this country than anywhere else in the world, except Mexico, not because one of the big recent Times investors was the richest man in the world and comes from Mexico, which in NY Times land is just a coincidence.)
From January, 2009, NY Times:
The New York Times Company said Monday it had reached an agreement with the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú for a $250 million loan intended to help the newspaper company finance its businesses.
Under the terms of the deal, Mr. Slim, who already owns 6.9 percent of the Times Company, would invest $250 million in the form of six-year notes with warrants that are convertible into common shares, the company said in a statement. The notes also carry a 14 percent interest rate, with 11 percent paid in cash and 3 percent in additional bonds.
In August, 2011, we learn:
Carlos Slim Helú, the Mexican billionaire who is by some accounts the world’s richest man, has added to his holdings in The New York Times Company...
In a regulatory filing Monday, Mr. Slim and members of his family said they had bought additional shares in the company, raising their ownership stake to just over 7 percent, or 10.6 million Class A shares. Previously the family owned just under 7 percent of the Class A shares.
Mr. Slim and his family hold warrants to buy nearly 16 million more shares, which would bring their holdings to 16 percent should they choose to execute them. The warrants expire in 2015.
The Times Company recently repaid Mr. Slim a $250 million loan, plus 14 percent interest. The loan was repaid three and a half years before it was due and five months earlier than the company had initially planned to settle the debt.
The company borrowed the money from Mr. Slim in early 2009 amid a particularly rough period in its history.
If you think that politicians are the only ones influenced by money, you don't read the newspaper.