New Installment Re Proclamation of Bloomberg as First Amendment Champion: Times Editorial Struggles With Bloombergian Press Suppression

If you were following the National Notice stories about the incongruity of recent characterizations by the New York Times and Bloomberg biographer Joyce Purnick of Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a backer of free speech, incongruous given their historical coverage of the man, there is a new installment now available in that series. The new story also has the Occupy Wall Street at its core. It chronicles how the Times editorial page had to struggle with reconciling its odd new characterization of Mr. Bloomberg with the editorial it needed to write criticizing the way Bloomberg’s police department suppressed the press during its eviction of the OWS protesters from Zucotti Park.

The New story is: Monday, November 29, 2011 Times Editorial Page Quandary: After He’s Dubbed Free Speech Champion Bloomberg’s Police Suppress Press During Occupy Wall Street Eviction.

Prior articles in this series are:

• Sunday, November 20, 2011, Question of Truth For The Times: The Meme of Bloomberg as Champion of the First Amendment & Free Speech, Firmly Planted Before OWS Eviction.)

• Tuesday, November 22, 2011, Orwellian Purnick Purge: Bloomberg Biographer Rewrites Billionaire Mayor’s Record On First Amendment Free Speech Rights.)

The following Noticing New York articles pick up on the theme and relate it to Noticing New York concerns like Atlantic Yards and a long line of earlier stories about what the Times has been getting wrong:

• Wednesday, November 23, 2011, National Notice Article on Orwellian Reversal As Bloomberg Biographer Proclaims OWS-Evicting Billionaire Mayor "Firm Supporter of the First Amendment"

• Sunday, November 20, 2011, How Could The Times Get Yet Another Story (In Addition to Atlantic Yards) So Wrong: OWS Evicting Bloomberg as Defender of Free Speech

There is yet one more to add to that Noticing New York list:

• Friday, November 25, 2011, What Oscar Snub of “Page One: Inside the New York Times” Might Tell Us About A Misplaced Losing-the-Battle (and War) NY Times Bet