John Liu

Questions Raised Over John Liu's Fundraising

Josh Petri | October 12, 2011, 9:44AM

The number eight may not turn out to be so lucky for New York City comptroller John Liu.

The New York Times has raised questions about the source and legitimacy about some of the New York mayoral candidate's campaign contributions.

Liu recently announced that he had raised $1 million in the first six months of the year, much of it from donors who gave $800 each--to reflect the number 8, which is lucky in Chinese culture. The massive haul placed Liu firmly in the top tier of candidates looking to replace Michael Bloomberg next year.

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Wikileaks

Reports: Air Force Blocks NYT, Other News Sites Over Wikileaks

Rachel Slajda | December 14, 2010, 6:07PM

The Air Force is now blocking the web sites of the New York Times, the Guardian, and other news outlets that have posted diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks.

According to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, the Air Force ordered the sites blocked from personnel computers last month. An Air Force spokeswoman told Reuters that the Air Force "routinely blocks Air Force network access to websites hosting inappropriate materials or malware (malicious software) and this includes any website that hosts classified materials and those that are released by WikiLeaks."

She said 25 sites have been blocked.

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Wikileaks

NYT: DOJ Isn't Investigating Us

Rachel Slajda | December 8, 2010, 9:09AM

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

Although anti-Wikileaks crusader Sen. Joe Lieberman said yesterday that the New York Times' publishing of the leaked cables "bears a very intensive inquiry by the Justice Department," the Times says no such inquiry is, to their knowledge, taking place.

"The New York Times has not been contacted by anyone in law enforcement," a spokeswoman tells TPM.

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Wikileaks

Lieberman: NYT May Have Committed Crime By Publishing Wikileaks Cables (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | December 7, 2010, 1:29PM

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who has become one of the most vocal critics of Wikileaks, said today that while Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is definitely guilty of crimes, the New York Times may also have broken the law by posting some of those diplomatic cables.

"To me, the New York Times has committed at least an act of bad citizenship," Lieberman said on Fox News today. "Whether they've committed a crime, I think that bears very intensive inquiry by the Justice Department."

Lieberman acknowledged that the idea is "sensitive" because "it gets into the First Amendment."

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J.C. Owsley

An Answer To The Times' Titans Of Industry Mystery

Eric Lach | December 2, 2010, 1:16PM

J.E. Owsley (right) in 1905, when he coached Yale's football team.

Who is J.C. Owsley? Yesterday, we pointed out a terrific infographic in The New York Times, which listed the top salary earners in the country in 1941, and their tax rates. Among the names were well-known titans of industry: Thomas J. Watson, President of IBM; Eugene G. Grace, President of Bethlehem Steel; and Louis B. Mayer, General Manager of MGM. Number one on the list was a gun manufacturer, Carl Swebilius, and his wife Hulda Swebilius. But two of the names on the list, J.C. Owsley and C.S. Woolman, were labeled "unable to identify" by the Times. In a footnote, the paper attributed the lack of information to possible typographical errors in the documents it had received from the National Archives. According to the list, Owsley earned $486,244 and Woolman earned $442,142 in 1941. Could some of the nation's richest individuals really be so obscure? After some research (and the help of some reader tips), we think we've identified both men -- but Owsley's is the trickier case.

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Richard Blumenthal

Times Publishes More Accounts Of Blumenthal Misrepresenting Service

Rachel Slajda | May 21, 2010, 2:29PM

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D)

The New York Times today published two more examples of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal suggesting that he served in the Vietnam War.

In one, unearthed by the Stamford Advocate's search through its archives, Blumenthal says he "wore the uniform in Vietnam."

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Richard Blumenthal

That Other Thing: Blumenthal And The Swim Team

Rachel Slajda | May 21, 2010, 11:30AM

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate

In its bombshell story on Richard Blumenthal's military record this week, the New York Times took a few paragraphs to mention Blumenthal's college athletic record, framing it as an example of his willingness to mislead. Not only had he never served in Vietnam, the Times wrote; he was never on the Harvard swim team, either.

"On a less serious matter, another flattering but untrue description of Mr. Blumenthal's history has appeared in profiles about him. In two largely favorable profiles ... Mr. Blumenthal is described prominently as having served as captain of the swim team at Harvard. Records at the college show that he was never on the team," wrote the Times reporter, Raymond Hernandez.

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Richard Blumenthal

NYT: Longer Video Of Blumenthal Describing Record Doesn't Change Our Story

Rachel Slajda | May 20, 2010, 10:18AM

CT AG Richard Blumenthal

The New York Times says a longer video of the March 2008 speech in which Richard Blumenthal said he "served in Vietnam" -- and in which he also also correctly says he served "during Vietnam" -- doesn't change its story about Blumenthal lying about his record. A Times spokesman also urged Blumenthal to come clean to voters.

"The New York Times in its reporting uncovered Mr. Blumenthal's long and well established pattern of misleading his constituents about his Vietnam War service, which he acknowledged in an interview with The Times," said Diane McNulty, a spokesman for the Times. "The video doesn't change our story. Saying that he served 'during Vietnam' doesn't indicate one way or the other whether he went to Vietnam."

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Richard Blumenthal

At Same '08 Speech, Blumenthal More Correctly Describes Military Record (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | May 19, 2010, 3:46PM

CT AG Richard Blumenthal

Earlier this week, the New York Times ran a story about the ambiguous way Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal describes his military service. In the Times' strongest example of Blumenthal's misrepresentations, he says, "when I served in Vietnam."

But as the Associated Press points out today, in a longer version of the speech -- which has been posted on the YouTube page of one of Blumenthal's Republican opponents since the Times story broke -- the attorney general also describes his military service more accurately, saying he "served in the military during the Vietnam era, in the Marine Corps."

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New York Times

Oops: Times Corrects Itself -- Again -- On Faulty Gitmo-Terror Headline

Justin Elliott | January 7, 2010, 6:46PM

Guantanamo Article From 1/7/10 New York Times

Here we go again.

You may remember the series of posts we did last spring on a splashy New York Times front-pager that was originally headlined "1 In 7 Detainees Rejoined Jihad, Pentagon Finds."

TPMmuckraker pointed out that, among other flaws in the story and the Defense Department study on which it was based, the piece simply accepted the Pentagon's assumption that all Guantanamo detainees were jihadists when they entered the prison. Under that theory, all detainees who were allegedly engaging in terrorism had therefore "rejoined" the fight. In fact, there's evidence that that assumption is false.

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