New York Times Buries Story
About Harmful Effects of Welfare Reform
August 26, 2001
The New York Times devoted
one paragraph
the other day to a report that "welfare changes have led to rising
hunger and homelessness among the city's poorest residents." This
one paragraph item was buried on page 17.
Let's see what was on page
one that day: China facing an AIDS epidemic; the Condit interview; Bush
announcing the U.S. will quit the ABM pact. So far, pretty important,
newsworthy stuff.
To continue with the page one
stories: an analysis of the budget surplus-Social Security conundrum; rising
law school admissions; public records online cause privacy concerns; and
food shortages cause bears to enter towns looking for food.
Well, I'm no news editor, but
I'd certainly rank the welfare report above at least the last three items on
page 1. Not to mention a whole lot of the other stories in the
newspaper between pages 2 and 17.
But then again, I, like many
others, think stories detailing how government policies are hurting our most
vulnerable citizens are quite important, and the New York Times
editors -- at least as evidenced in this instance -- apparently don't.
[To see this
report, from the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, go here and then click on
"Reports/Publications," then "Full Text of Selected Committee
Reports, then "Welfare Reform in New York City"] |
