Letters to the NYT times needed to correct their blowoff of Ashcroft 911

[papau]

decision to not use comercial flights in July 2001.


FAIR writes, "Contrary to the impression you would have gotten from the NY Times' item, Ashcroft when asked at the hearings did not simply deny that he had stopped flying on commercial planes. After saying that he continued using commercial airlines for *personal* travel, he acknowledged that he had stopped using such flights for official business, in response to a threat assessment... In other words, what the Times depicted as a 'conspiracy theory'-- that Ashcroft 'stopped flying on commercial aircraft before the attacks'-- is actually true, although he may not have flown exclusively on non-commercial flights. Ashcroft's claim that this remarkable decision had nothing to do with a terrorism threat is something that a skeptical reporter might want to investigate. The New York Times, however, saw it a comical anecdote-- the joke being that some people think that there are still unexplained mysteries about September 11."

Write public editor Dan Okrent, [e-mail]

[StClone]

1. The Threats to Ashcroft

Were apparently threats on his life. I have not seen this verified but that was the claim by someone on NPR.

[mrdmk]

2. I think the New York Times is beyond repair at this moment

We get the Sunday NYT because the wifey needs the book reviews and the arts section for her work. Those sections seem fairly coherent with the real world at this moment. The world news section is a complete joke, like I said last week, the New York Times is like reading Pravda of the nineteen-seventies. We have discussed canceling the NYT several times now, but I come back with if you need this newspaper we will keep the subscription.

I will look at the Fair website for this article.
http://www.fair.org/activism/nyt-ashcroft-airplanes.html