What The New York Times Left Out Of Its Gov. Christie Profile
Written by Eric Boehlert
Published
We already noted how the Times, with its recent 6,000-word profile, continued with the Beltway media tradition of announcing that the “people” were fueling the amazing “ascent” of New Jersey's Republican Governor, Chris Christie, even though there's not much proof that that is the case. By contrast, there is plenty of proof that pundits are the one fueling the Christie hype, not “the people.”
So yes, Christie continues to get fawning press coverage. And when a politician is singled out for fawning press coverage that means parts of the story that don't fit the approved media narrative (i.e. Christie is a plainspoken, can-do achiever) are conveniently left aside.
Specifically in terms of Christie, there are two telling, recent episodes that the Times' Matt Bai chose to ignore, apparently concluding the incidents reveal nothing about Christie's political nature.
But trust me, they do.
The first was Christie's infamous decision in late December to leave New Jersey for a family vacation even though forecasters had warned a blizzard was barreling towards the state, and even though Christie's No. 2 was already out of the state on vacation. Worse, in the wake of the epic storm, Christie refused to return home early from vacation to help the state deal with the historic blizzard that left portions of the state buried under 30 inches of snow and paralyzed for days. (The storm was so severe the Garden State had to appeal to FEMA for $53 million in disaster aid.)
Christie's astonishing blizzard blunder made headlines around the country. But in an article about how Christie's now dealing with statewide belt-tightening during a time of shared sacrifice, the Times saw no reason to make reference, not even once, to the time the governor famously chose to stay on vacation in sunny Florida while his state tried to dig out from a dangerous storm.
The second episode that the Times blacked out was even more inexcusable simply because so much of the Christie profile dealt with his stand-off with New Jersey state teachers. On that front, the Times' Bai was certain: “All that's clear is that Christie seems to be winning at every turn.”
The governor is totally running circles around the hapless Jersey teachers in their battle over pay and benefits. (That's because Christie's such a great communicator, don't you know. The Times said so.)
So at every turn Christie is trumping the teachers. What the Times politely left out of that equation was the humiliating revelation last summer that thanks to Christie's blunder and his obsession with besting the teachers, the state lost out on $400 million in desperately needed federal aid to N.J. schools. In fact, Christie's own Education Commissioner publicly blamed Christie for the failure to land the federal money, insisting the governor put his political battle with the teacher union ahead of securing the federal funds.
But again, in an article about how Christie is “winning at every turn” in his battle with teachers, the Times forgot to include that story.
Behold your liberal media.