This Week in Carolyn Ryan Media Bias

If you read The New York Times, you might ask yourself, "What hospital closing crisis ?"

In the last week, doctors, nurses, medical staff, Brooklyn residents, advocates for improved healthcare access, and even politicians (!) have been staging almost daily demonstrations in an effort to apply political pressure on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to save Long Island College Hospital (LICH).

Last Sunday, "Public Advocate and mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio rallied with nurses and healthcare workers outside the struggling Long Island College Hospital Sunday, calling on Gov. Cuomo to intervene to save the Cobble Hill facility and another Brooklyn hospital," reported Metro New York. On Monday, several hundred activists congregated outside Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office, demanding that the governor take state action to save LICH. On Wednesday, NYSNA ED Jill Furillo, RN ; President-Elect Judy Sheridan Gonzalez, RN ; Mr. de Blasio ; and about a dozen others were arrested in a trying to deliver a petition with approximately 7,000 signatures to SUNY officials in an effort to save LICH. On Thursday, Assemblywoman Joan Millman was among three people arrested at Brooklyn Bridge in another LICH protest.

But if you've been reading the "political coverage" on The New York Times, you would have only read one surly blog posting by Anemona Hartocollis (@anemonanyc), the hospital closing reporter. Ms. Hartocollis, who is normally asleep at the switch, or out shopping at for trendy shoes, wrote an article glamourising mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio for getting arrested on Wednesday's act of civil disobedience.

But Ms. Hartocollis's blog posting completely left out the growing community's concerns with the chicanery going on with Gov. Cuomo's deliberate attempts to shut down LICH.

But in all of the hospital closing articles or blog postings that Ms. Hartocollis has ever written, she's never managed to connect the dots with the pressure that the for-profit insurance industry and austerity cuts to healthcare being made by politicians are each having on the finances of New York City hospitals. Too bad Ms. Hartocollis shares the same lack of political depth in her reporting as Carolyn Ryan, the new politics editor, at The New York Times, has in her editing.

It might have been premature to think that Ms. Ryan had evolved from her identity politics support for her fellow lesbian mayoral candidate, Christine Quinn.

Christine Quinn's Political Ethics TV Bars No Signal

Rudin Pay-To-Play St. Vincent's Deal Caused Intern To Quit Christine Quinn Mayoral Campaign

Rudin donations to fix St. Vincent's luxury condos deal caused intern to quit @chriscquinn campaign : christine-quinn-sold-out.blogspot.com/2011/02/rudin-… @nycisnot4sale

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) May 9, 2013

City Council Community Outreach Does Campaign Outreach For Christine Quinn

The Community Outreach Unit of the New York City Council, a taxpayer-financed office that has organized rallies to protect student subway discounts and sponsored adult education fairs, frequently functions as something else as well: a publicity and public relations machine for Christine C. Quinn. Read more : City Council’s Outreach Unit, Run by Quinn, Mainly Benefits Her Campaign

@uft - @quinn4ny uses Council's 16 person "Community Outreach Unit" as her private campaign staff nyti.ms/Yyq8Ps @mjalonschi

— Defeat Chris Quinn (@defeatquinn) April 19, 2013

The New York Times described the Community Outreach Unit, a taxpayer-financed group of many political operatives, as almost entirely focused on propping up Speaker Quinn's political image, which would benefit her mayoral campaign.

"Inside the community outreach office recently, there was a photograph of Ms. Quinn handing a plaque to Whoopi Goldberg. Below, a dry erase board bore reminders about two coming events the group helped organize: a breakfast for women of faith and a celebration of Irish culture. Ms. Quinn was the featured speaker at both. At the Irish event, the unit’s workers escorted to their seats prominent Irish-American families, including relatives of Thomas Manton, the former chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, whose backing was crucial to Ms. Quinn’s election as speaker," The New York Times reported.

This isn't the first time Speaker Quinn has been accused of using taxpayer money for her campaign.

A former deputy chief of staff to Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn who recently served as a top aide to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s re-election effort has been fined for violating city law by soliciting campaign contributions for Ms. Quinn while working for her.

In announcing the sanction on Monday, the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board said in a statement that around April 2007, the former aide, Maura Keaney, made between six and a dozen phone calls to union representatives to ask them to be on the host committee for a fund-raising event for Ms. Quinn’s re-election bid. The ethics board, which fined Ms. Keaney $2,500, noted that serving on the host committee required a campaign contribution. (NYTimes : Ethics Panel Fines Ex-Aide to Speaker)

Does Outreach do fundraising ? Remember Maura Keaney ? @suzannahbtroy @nyccouncil @chriscquinn @defeatquinn @dumpchrisquinn @colvinj

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) April 19, 2013

Moreover, the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, a nonprofit group, which has publicly supported Speaker Quinn's campaign platform for several years, requested $100,000 in City Council slush funds for each of the past three years to advocate for Speaker Quinn. By admission of the office of Speaker Quinn, these funds were granted by Speaker Quinn. (WSJ : City Grants Aids Quinn Campaign)

NYTimes Media Bias Newscast featuring Suzannah B. Troy as Christine Quinn

Suzannah B. Troy mocked the media bias by editors, including Carolyn Ryan, at The New York Times, which promotes the mayoral candidacy of Christine Quinn.

Follow us on Facebook : We Protest Media Bias In The New York Times