Conflict Of Interest Over NYT Valenti Profile, Valenti Resists Lawsuit Strategy

from the you-would-think-the-NYTimes-would-be-more-careful... dept

With all the trouble the NY Times has had in the past year with just how honest they're being with the public, you would think they'd be bending over backwards to avoid anything that might look bad. It doesn't look that way. A couple weeks ago they ran a puff piece about Jack Valenti and how he was "at the top of his game" - which seemed a little odd to many folks who consider Valenti anything but. Ernest Miller points to Mickey Kaus slamming the NY Times for the piece, pointing out that the writer of the piece is married to the head of Sony Pictures - and, thus, is one of Valenti's "bosses". Unfortunately, it appears there's no permanent link to the Kaus piece (unless I'm missing something...) so it will scroll of the page eventually. Still, you would think there's quite a big conflict in having that guy write the piece. As, Kaus says: "Suppose a New York Times reporter were married to the owner of a major league baseball team. Would the Times let that reporter cover the Commissioner of Baseball?" Anyway, as Miller points out, even more interesting than the obvious conflict of interest in the piece is the idea that the movie studio heads are apparently angry at Valenti for not adopting the RIAA's strategy of suing everyone.

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