RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Lately, the New York Times is doing things that could easily merit a rename to the "New Leak Times." Just days ago, they leaked crucial details of a spy program to the general public, a program that had been successfuly used to track the funds of villianous terrorists. And, also recently, they leaked details from a *classified* briefing about future troop movements in Iraq. And, of course, there is the paper's obvious liberal bias, which seems quite constant.

While the paper has had some ebarrassing moments of late (Jayson Blair) and made a bad decision backing up that administration shill Judith Miller, it still has about 150 years of highly credible news reporting. I think people to easily confuse the liberal editorial policy of the paper with its news reporting. Understand that the stories that are reported as fact are much different than the stories written by Krugman, Dowd, Friedman and Herbert. I agree with Eric Alterman when he concedes [paraphrase] "a majority of columnists may indeed have liberal social policy beliefs, but it is more than compensated for by a strong slant to the right on economic matters."

The Voice of the Left. Why not just admit it and be done with the charade?

They often have interesting stories, particularly about culture and the arts, and they avoid being a mouthpiece of the Bush administration, but they're just too pretentious. Plenty of other papers do the above things, without adopting a snobby and elitist tone. And the Jayson Blair thing is a real black eye for them. We need better local papers, because it's definitely a bad trend that the NYT is taking over everything.

Fantastic coverage of events local, national and international. I love how it continually exposes the hypocrisy of the Bush administration on any host of issues. Someone has to.

Most papers are relevant to their city and have some good editorials, but you can read the New York Times anywhere from San Francisco to Boston and come away with more information than you would find in even the local paper. No paper reaches that high standard except the New York Times.

As a conservative, I despise this paper. As a person who likes accurate reporting and quality journalism...oh wait I still end up despising this news paper.

I love this paper very much. Living in Nebraska we have a lousy daily paper, but the New York Times is just an excellent national newspaper. I love the entire newspaper, it seems like everybody who writes for the paper is just brilliant. I sure feel like I get more my dollars worth with this paper!!!

The NY times is one of the most informative and comprehensive papers around, and you can be sure that by reading it, you will be kept updated on whats going on in the world. However, it is incredibly biased in favor of left wingers, and thus sometimes the view on the stories are written in the eyes of a democrat.

Why anyone would trust any newspaper in this country? They're all own by Israel so basically whatever you read is an extremely left-biased amount of information. Henry Ford Sr. was right.

Very informative; you'll learn something by reading the Times. But it's expensive, somewhat stodgy, and very pretentious. I only read it when I can't the Washington Post; too bad it isn't nation wide.

I do read the NY Times, but just to get an idea of what the liberal media spin is. I never take their news at face value.

If I could rate this paper lower than 1-Terrible I would!!!

I think this paper is excellent. Fair views, great coverage. Very comprehensive, the best newspaper I've ever read.

Normally I would give NYT 2 stars because of its tilt toward pro-Palestinian views and uninteresting, carefully scripted new. However the latest scandal with prosecuting a hacker that revealed what idiots NYT were just does it! Too bad there is no 0-star rating.

Reporting is supposed to be politically objective. This rag is so liberally-biased that I don't even see how they can call what they do "reporting."

The National Enquirer is more believable.

The NY Times is getting out of control.

If you think the fact that this newspaper is a "traditional American newspaper" is going to stop me from addressing its falsification of the news (not just on one occassion), then you're seriously mistaken. I'll never trust another word this newspaper prints.

This newspaper is the exact opposite from being fair and balanced. Did you see some of the headlines for the March 25th issue? It stated that we are in "a fierce fight". If we really are in such a fierce fight, why have we only lost like 15 troops to enemy fighting!? To say its a fierce fight when we have killed at LEAST 25,000 of them (fact) over 4,000 of them prisoner, not even a week into the fight and where already on the outskirts of Baghdad. They enemy has killed about 15 of our guys and taken about 10 POW's. And its a fierce fight, right?

One man describes the credibility of the New York Times in a nutshell: Jayson Blair. The Times took pride in the fact that they held affirmative action so dearly when they should have fired him for plagiarism. Here you have one guy stealing article segments and stories from other papers and fabricating other reoprts during the whole time he was with the New York Times and the Times covering it up because they don't want to look racist. What you see here is modern liberalism in its purest form.

Way too liberal. Not fair and balanced.

its like an 80 year old college professor that has no idea whatthe real world is like, it has an agenda and thats it, for 25 cents you can buy the post and get the news, if thats all you want

Has become yet another lapdog of corporate and monied interests, but isn't mired in the absolute propaganda ethos of most mainstream newspapers these days. Still the best researched, reported, written and edited sheet out there, but when you consider how crappy most other newspapers are, that's not saying much. I have to laugh when I hear people refer to this newspaper as being "liberal." Not by a long shot. However, since most mainstream dailys are nothing more than handouts supporting the rightwing drooler POV that cost anywhere from .25 to $1.00, I guess most idiots would lack a relative perspective: their minds are poisoned by the crap they usually read. Say what you will, but the NYT has superior Arts and Leisure, Sports, Metro and Business sections and national reporting is a strong point. However, the Sulzbergers appear to have become more interested in making $$$ than the journalistic mission these days, and it shows in the paper. Still the heavyweight champion of American journalism, tho...

Nothing more than another liberal platform. In the same "lack of", class as the la times. A liberal joke.

Excellent paper with well-written news. Clear photographs. Definite read for anyone wanting to get informed on current events.

Don't worry, Bush & Co. will shut it down soon. National security, you know.

Sorry to break it to you, but neither the world NOR country revolves around NYC...nor should they.

People confuse liberalism with actually giving the news, the NYT doesn't do anything, but give fair and balanced view of whats going on, thats what bothers people. The NYT tries to remain neutral, but for the right-wing fascists thats not enough, being in the middle is far to liberal for these neo-nazi's. Well, I give thumbs up to the NYT, if the President lies then I expect the newspapers to point it out and them doing so is not liberal its just whats happening. If a company is dumping chemicals in the water supply, its not liberal to call them on it, its news. When Bush says he wants to drill in ANWAR and the NYT points out that it will take ten years to get to the only six months worth of oil that ANWAR has, that's not lieing, or left-wing either, its what the facts are. Many people don't like the facts, but the facts are still the facts. Those of us with the cranial capacity to understand the world around us like these facts, those that lack that capacity want only the spun version.

The retraction and clarification page continues to grow and will soon occupy the entire daily edition.

This paper is too liberal. I know that most papers are biased in some way, but this is by-far the most biased paper I have ever read. Maureen Dowd and that Stein guy make me want to puke. All I ever see is either "the religious right this" and "radical conservatives that." Makes me sick.

If I wanted to read a pro-Israeli viewpoint, I would buy the Jerusalem Post.

Liberal Rag. Only the LA Times, is worse.

More difficult to read then other papers i find. They write in a condescending fashion I feel. There sports coverage is also below average.

It's very liberal and pisses me off to high heavens all too often, but I still read it everyday and do the crossword...

Biased liberal fishwrap.

Does anyone still believe that this is that paper with an objective viewpoint?

I was forced to buy this liberal rag in college for a political science class. I want my money back - why should I have to pay for indoctrination into lies? The NYT is similar in bias to the Daily Worker.

Over rated by pundits and "experts"

harry stein wrote that the ny times is still the best paper for art and culture and stuff. but their leftist slant is almost as bad as Time magazine. he was talking about how they even go so far as to politicize science, putting sexism into their analyses of different species behavior and stuff. i live in washington, d.c. and see a pile of these sitting next to our Post at starbucks. i gotta tell ya, they put the most ridiculously airheaded things on the front page. i remembered stein also mentioning when their management changed from a guy dedicated to professionalism in journalism, to his son or something, dedictated to promoting his agenda.

I honestly think this is the best and most reliable paper in the United States today and has been for many years. It has amazing coverage of so many topics: sports, news, science, current and past events, arts and leisure, books, politics, the list goes on and on.

Has long ago lost its position because of efforts to advance political ideologies. Much of the reporting is thorough, but readers treated as mindless persons who can reach conclusions on their own.

The best newpaper out there. It covers what's going on in New York very, very well. They have the greatest arts and entertainment section, as it covers what's going on, on broadway and has some great ads in it too. They don't just cover politics, they in fact make it fun to read the newspaper.

Nice. Usually it has what I need. Does the price keep going up on these papers?! Informative. -----

NY Times really lost credibility this past year. I read that they had an internal meeting b/c they had to apologize for errors at a rate twice as bad as previous years. And several of these were really inexcusable (captioning a photo to blame an Israeli soldier for beating a Palistinian, when it turns out that it was a Jewish American student, who had beaten by Arabs, with an Israeli policeman then arriving on the scene). It's also comical to see their editorial page turn against Clinton now in the wake of Pardongate, when they were such chronic enablers of that band of gangsters for as long as they held power.

When it comes to pure news events, NYTimes is very good, with great breadth and depth of coverage. When it comes to politics, they are predictably liberal, always blaming the likes of white males and the villians of Stephen Seagal movies. Combine the two, and this is not a paper worthy of trust.

Maybe it's branding but if you put a half dozen of the nations biggest and best newspapers in front of me I will always reach for the New York Times first. So perhaps it's because it was the paper of choice in our house when I was kid but in my mind it is not only the biggest but the BEST! If you can find anything that interests you in the New York Times then perhaps you ought to stick to People Magazine.

Despite having lived in the Philadelphia area since 1972, I still read the NY Times. I used to get only the sunday Times and spent the whole week reading every bit of it, until the next one arrived. I get it everyday now. There truly is something for everyone in this all inclusive paper.

Consistently one of the best US papers. If only all local papers were up to their standards.

The coverage is comprehensive and well written. The Sunday Book Review and Magazine are perhaps its best features.

I guess it all comes down to what you are looking for in a Newspaper. If you are looking for concise, timely updates on WHAT is happening, USA Today is the way to go. If you are looking for more in depth, less timely, detailed analyses of WHY things are happening, the NY Times is a better bet.

The classic newspaper. Excellent in almost all aspects, and best-in-class when it comes to national and international news. The Sports section isn't the best, politics/government coverage isn't as good as the Washington Post, and business/finance coverage isn't as good as WSJ, but in terms of the complete package NYT is at the head of the class. And the Sunday NYT book review section is still the best of its kind.

The best city-based newspaper in the world. If you only read the Sunday Times each week, you'll know everything you need to know.