Conservatives Welcome Tierney as 'NYT' Op-Ed Choice

By ACSH Staff — Mar 01, 2005
A March 1, 2005 Editor and Publisher article by Brian Orloff about John Tierney taking William Safire's place on the New York Times editorial page (alongside his ideologically-opposed ex-girlfriend, Maureen Dowd) mentions the objections of Columbia Journalism Review's Zach Roth and, in the process, Roth's objections to ACSH (which accepts donations from anyone willing to give -- including you, or for that matter Greenpeace -- as long as no strings are attached to our research):

A March 1, 2005 Editor and Publisher article by Brian Orloff about John Tierney taking William Safire's place on the New York Times editorial page (alongside his ideologically-opposed ex-girlfriend, Maureen Dowd) mentions the objections of Columbia Journalism Review's Zach Roth and, in the process, Roth's objections to ACSH (which accepts donations from anyone willing to give -- including you, or for that matter Greenpeace -- as long as no strings are attached to our research):

"On several occasions, writing for the Times magazine, for his column, and in other parts of the paper, he's advanced arguments in ways that border on outright intellectual dishonesty," Zach Roth of Columbia Journalism Review wrote in December, "either by willfully ignoring major sides of the debate, or by flouting basic journalistic norms whose observance might weaken his case."

Roth cited a 2000 column attacking a CBS report suggesting that apples sprayed with Alar caused a cancer risk; Tierney had written that the American Council on Science and Health had found fault with the report but didn't mention that the group is funded by corporate donors, including Alar's manufacturer.

Roth also delved into Tierney's probably most famous piece, a 1996 Times Magazine cover story titled "Recycling Is Garbage," which argued that recycling is inefficient, too expensive, and largely unnecessary. Tierney was accused of so many inaccuracies and misrepresentations in that piece that a rebuttal prepared by the Natural Resources Defense Council ran to 86 pages.