Topic category:  Government/Politics

Like the old gray mare of song, "the old gray lady" (that is, The New York Times) ain't what she used to be.

When The New York Times was founded in 1851, its editors made two important promises to their readers in the first issue: (1) they would not "write as if...in a passion unless that shall really be the case,' and (2) they would "make it a point to get into a passion as rarely as possible."

George Jones, a co-founder of The Times, got into a "passion" about what William Marcy "Boss" Tweed and his cronies had been doing in New York City. He initiated and continued an unremitting (and ultimately successful) editorial campaign, even though The Times was subjected to retaliatory legal attacks, suffered a substantial (but temporary) advertising loss, and might have been ruined if the campaign had failed. Allegedly, even an offer of a substantial bribe failed to dissuade Jones and The Times from continuing the campaign.

Jones and The Times finally prevailed, because the people no longer were fooled by Tweed's whine that he was "sick of being dragged into the mud by...scoundrels" and his attorney's argument that the campaign was "purely political," an attempt to 'use the judiciary to overturn the vote and voice of the people,' and "a Catalinarian conspiracy" to destroy Tweed politically. (Cataline, a Roman politician who advocated abolition of debts and redistribution of property, unsuccessfully conspired to overthrow the state and seize control in 63 B.C.)

In 2008 The New York Times "made it a point" (1) to passionately but slyly promote the presidential candidacy of wealth redistributor Barack Obama, (2) to drag his rival, John McCain, and his running mate, Sarah Palin, into the mud and (3) to spike an Obama/ACORN expose last October because the editors feared it would be "a game changer."

That spiking was "purely political" and sparked by economic self-interest that Jones boldly disregarded in order to pursue and to publicize the truth in the public interest.

Instead of pursuing the truth and scrutinizing both major presidential candidates, The Times shamelessly slimed McCain and Palin and contemptibly cooperated with ACORN and the Obama presidential campaign in concealing illicit coordination between them and refused to expose Obama's blatant lie during the last presidential debate as to the extent of his relationship with ACORN.

Times rightly referred to her confidential source, ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief, as "a gold mine,' but "higher up" at The Times the plan was to palm off "fool's gold" on the people.

But Abraham Lincoln was right: "You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time."

As the Obama agenda is pursued, people are paying closer and closer attention.

In accordance with the spirit of truth-in-advertising laws. The Times should change its motto from "All The News That's Fit To Print" to "Only The News That Fits Our Agenda."

The Times has transformed from a "lady" to a political prostitute.

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.