The New York Times doesn't want you to know who this man is.



Jonathan Tasini is running a primary challenge against the de facto Republican incumbent, Kirstin Gillibrand. I'm supporting Tasini. Tasini is a Real Democrat, supporting the party's positions on most issues, which is a refreshing change from both Ms. Gillibrand and Chuck "Loves Torture" Schumer.

The New York Times has been censoring coverage of his campaign, just as they did when he ran a primary challenge against Hillary Clinton. It's difficult to tell whether the far right bias of the Times or the fact that Tasini sued the paper years ago is playing a bigger role in the Times' censorship of his campaign.

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR at www.fair.org) has been calling attention to this act of media censorship. Here are two articles on their website addressing the issue.

'Considering' a Campaign More Newsworthy Than Conducting One? (1/12/10)

Corporate Media Love a Horserace--but They Love Gatekeeping Even More (1/13/10)

The first article points out that the Times is covering Harold Ford's possible run against Gillibrand, while pointedly excluding Tasini's actual campaign. The second article makes an important point on how the Times is keeping its readers from knowing even how Tasini's campaign might effect the race.

The Times has lately run two extensive stories (1/11/11, 1/13/10) on whether Harold Ford, a former representative from Tennessee, would also run against Gillibrand--both of which ignored the fact that it was already a two-person race. Tasini, a writer and labor organizer, ran once before for the same seat, and got 17 percent of the vote against Hillary Clinton--a politician with greater name recognition than either Gillibrand or Ford.

You don't have to be Nate Silver to realize that a candidate who has the possibility to get 17 percent of the vote could have a major impact in a three-person race; even if you have a crystal ball that tells you that Tasini won't get more than that this time, it's impossible to handicap the primary without having some sense of who those voters are and what they are likely to do faced with three choices.

It is so important to have media watchdogs like FAIR to remind us just how censored and unreliable corporate media outlets are. The New York Times resembles the Soviet Pravda more with each passing day, with corporations replacing commissars as the totalitarians who control people's access to information.