Shameful and Dishonest Coverage of Detective Diller’s Funeral by The New York Times
“How many more police officers and how many families need to make the ultimate sacrifice before we start protecting them?” Stephanie Diller’s plaintive question at Saturday’s funeral for her husband, Det. Jonathan Diller, somehow turned out to be news not fit to print for The New York Times.
Nor the lines that preceded it:
“It’s been two years and two months since Detective Rivera and Detective Mora made the ultimate sacrifice — just like my husband Jonathan Diller.
“And now my son will grow up without his father, and I will grow old without my husband. And his parents have to say goodbye to their child.”
Her words made the front page of The Post and even the hyperleft Daily News; nebbishy Newsday at least put the funeral on Page One.
Yet the Times stuck its report back on page A21, without even a “tracer” on the front page (the one local story that got that privilege was about . . . new city trash containers).
The article quoted the widow’s eulogy, but not her most newsworthy appeal.
the online version, with no space limit at all, though it ran 1,100-plus words.
But the Times did find room for the ever-important “Republicans pounce” angle: nearly 300 words on how “Some people — particularly Republicans — have seized on the killing as emblematic of what they consider the lax laws and public safety policies promoted by New York Democrats,” when, the article “explained,” major crime reports in the city are down 2% this year over last.
Again, one of those “some people” was the widow, in her eulogy, citing the similar-and-still-unanswered plea of another cop widow two years before — a fact the Times didn’t deign to share with its readers.
In short, the Gray Lady just offered a masterclass in how to offer disingenuous spin in the guise of honest reporting.
Its true motto has become: “Only the news that supports our agenda.”
