NYTimes: Profit? We Have a Houston

you be the judge:

http://austinbay.net/blog/?p=557

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UPDATED: NY Times Libels Houston — In Paris

Yesterday a friend of mine who lives in Houston dropped me an angry email, asking me if I’d read the September 6 NY Times story on Houston’s role in Katrina relief. Yes, I did read it. I thought it was a reasonable story. But the emailer said another “version” existed that “libeled” Houston– an international version.

I couldn’t find the second version, but this morning
KTRK-TV, Houston’s ABC affiliate, has links to two NY Times stories — except they are the same story, though different, the same but different with a twist.

The “domestic” NY Times story examines Houston’s business community, and what it’s doing in the wake of Katrina. It mentions Houston benefited from the Great 1900 Hurricane which destroyed Galveston. It says one company is like an ambulance chaser. The “international” Times story…well, you read it, and note the sharpened rhetorical daggers.

Follow this link to the “domestic” NY Times.

It begins with: “Perhaps no city in the United States is in a better spot than Houston to turn Katrina’s tragedy into opportunity. And businesses here are already scrambling to profit in the hurricane’s aftermath. ”

Follow this link to the “international” version.

It begins with: “No one would accuse this city of being timid in the scramble to profit from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. ”

KTRK points out that this line is not in the domestic Times version.

This quote appears in the domestic version but is missing from the International Herald Tribune:

All this, of course, is capitalism at work, moving quickly to get resources to where they are needed most. And those who move fastest are likely to do best.

I will guarantee that the NY Times defense will be “editing for space.” A nasty, anti-Houston slant is magnified in the The International Herald Tribune version, which also adds a comment about Enron. A Times spokesperson later told KTRK that the stories are based on the same thesis, ie, Houston is benefiting from the hurricane.

Tempest in a teapot? Or another example of “mainstream” press bias with a slash and a dram of dishonest editing? It’s both. Call it small potatoes, but indicative small potatoes– and if dishonest is too strong a word, sub “adulterated.” This story (Houston’s business sector post-Katrina) deserved coverage, but not with the rhetorical editorialization. The truth is, an entire swath of the southeastern and southwestern US will eventually “benefit” in the same manner as evacuees arrive and businesses adjust– the first story acknowledges that. Why the editorialization? Here’s a theory: It’s also the NY-DC-LA media axis trying to take Houston down a notch or two. Houston opened its doors and hearts to evacuees. That’s too sweet of a story, especially from a Republican state and a swaggering Texas city. The NY-DC-LA axis responds with: “So let’s suggest that they are really being greedy, eh?” Unfair? Then offer another theory.

Here is the gut opf KTRK’s report:

You’ve likely heard the saying that there are two sides to every story. But there’s an interesting twist to that adage. A world-renowned newspaper apparently found two stories are better than one when it comes to Houston’s efforts in the wake of Katrina.

Katrina full coverage
Read the New York Times article
Read the International Herald Tribune article

Houston is home to the largest relief shelter in American history. From donating shelter, clothes, and food to making room in its schools, the city and its people have given of themselves.

So who could find anything bad to say about Houston? Apparently the New York Times could, which on Tuesday printed an article about Houston’s response to Katrina in two different newspapers. In one, the article seems relatively even handed. But in the other, some say it is overly critical, ill-timed, and in poor taste.

In the Times, there’s an above-the-fold article by Houston-based reporter Simon Romero. And apparently what’s in the Times is not all the news that’s fit to print.

In The International Herald Tribune published by the Times in Paris, Romero’s article is on page 15 and it begins with a line not in the Times, which reads “No one would accuse this city of being timid in the scramble to profit from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.”

It later contends, “A surge of business activity in Houston might lift the fortune of a city that is still struggling to recover from the collapse of Enron and two decades of job cuts in the energy industry.”

Both papers compared a Houston real estate company to ambulance chasers for offering special financing to hurricane victims. ..

Another graf:

The reporter who wrote the article referred me to New York and as of mid-afternoon, the times offered no explanation as to why the same article had two very different takes.

 

Don't forget, criticizing Houston is a way to criticize Bush by proxy.

 

folks, we want companies to make money off of this. you can't restore the economy of the region without it. profit, albeit not greed, is good.