NY Times Phony "Reform" Editorials

Every week or two the New York Times runs an editorial bemoaning the dysfunction of the State Government in Albany and calling for "reform."  But when there was an actual chance for reform to occur, the Times went all-out to sabotage it.

I refer to the aborted Governorship of Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer, unlike all the phonies who preceded him in the office, actually was determined to reform the horribly corrupt, inept, dysfunctional and ossified political setup perpetuated by the horrible hack politicians who rule New York State. Spitzer was a driven and hard-driving, moralistic man who genuinely tried to shake up the venal political system. 

Immediately the Times and the other NYC daily rags (NY Post and NY Daily News, owned respectively by plutocrats Rupert Murdoch, a global purveyor of crude fascistic agitprop, and real estate baron Mortimer Zuckerman) set out to check Spitzer. Instead of supporting Spitzer, the Times ran character assassination pieces about what a rotten personality Spitzer had, this being the putative reason he was running into opposition to reform! (That the entrenched vested interests could care less about his personality, and resisted change because of their self-interest, is obvious, and was ignored in these Times' hatchet jobs.) 

Next, Joseph Bruno, a lifelong corrupt hack who was the Republican boss of the State Senate, was discovered to be misusing State Police copters to ferry himself around the state on partisan political errands. When Spitzer's people leaked this to the press, the press turned it into a scandal against Spitzer! That is, Spitzer broke some unwritten rule by investigating Bruno and by leaking the results. This was labeled "Troopergate" by the media lynch mob. Even to this day, "Troopergate" means a Spitzer scandal, not a Bruno scandal. Amazing.

Finally, the media found a sword with which to slay Spitzer. The FBI, one of the U.S.' secret police agencies, snooped into a prostitution ring. (Or were tapping Spitzer.) Of all the upper classs clients of the ring, ONLY SPITZER was named. Yes, he broke the law. Of course, it is oppressive and unjust that prostitution is illegal in the first place. And Spitzer was hypocritical (show me a person who isn't hypocritical about something!) because of his past public crusading against prostitution and johns. But Spitzer was in the bullseye of the finance capitalists and their Federal hatchetmen who held a grudge from when, as State Attorney General, he went after Wall Street and made them pay fines for their various crimes and misdemeanor. (The financiers and their organs like the Wall Street Journal were positively gloating when they got Spitzer.)

As recently as Saturday, June 6, 2009, the Times was at it again, with another hand-wringing, sanctimonious "reform" editorial. They're full of it. The Sulzbergers and their fellow plutocrats like the political system just the way it is, because the corrupt hacks in Albany (and in New York City for that matter) give them everything they want. For instance, when the Times needed to run roughshod over property owners in Times Square to seize a site for its new temple, the Government used its power to do the Times' bidding,

It's easier to control unethical, amoral hustlers who have no principles and are dependent on and beholden to the media. The reason these rags run fake calls for "reform" is pure posturing, and to fool the rubes who credulously believe the propaganda they're reading. Apparently you can fool most of the people most of the time quite easily.

Since this was originally posted,  the Times has run a couple of more editorials (through June 14, '09) bemoaning the political circus in Albany. Two putative Democrats, a girlfriend-face-slashing bully named Hiram Monserrate, and a sleazy crook named Pedro Espada Jr., were paid by a billionaire named Thomas Golisano to vote with the Republicans to seize control of the State Senate from the Democrats. Golisano had the brass to run a full page ad in the NY Daily News braying about how wonderful it all is. (Both Monserrate and Espada are under investigation for scams whereby they set up "nonprofits," fund them with taxpayer money, and siphon off the proceeds. Espada also lies about where he lives- he doesn't live in the district he "represents," as required by law, but lives outside NYC in an "upscale" area. They are classic examples of amoral, ethics- and scruples-free political animals who dominate politics, especially in New York.) 

So the times just deeps its cynical hypocrisy with each new handwringing editorial bemoaning the tawdry state of NY politics, which it helped perpetuate by sabotaging would-be reformer Spitzer.