On Accuracy, Accountability and Positivity

On September 2 The New York Times published an editorial entitled "Mistrust and the Mosque," detailing findings of their own poll on this hot-button issue. Their framing of the results is disturbing and misleading.

They state New Yorkers have "robust disapproval of the mosque proposal." Then in the very next paragraph of their piece they state that 62% percent of New Yorkers say people had every right to build a mosque and Islamic community center near the WTC site. (An even higher percentage, 72%, agreed with that right when "mosque and Islamic community center” was changed to “house of worship.”)

Let's look more closely. Almost two-thirds of the people whose city was devastated by radical Muslims say that Muslims can and should build a house of worship just blocks from the site of that devastation. Is that really "robust disapproval"?

Answer? No, it is not. It is a remarkable display of tolerance and understanding by New Yorkers, who do not deserve the Times's self-serving chidings and expressions of disappointment. Contrariwise, they deserve enormous respect and thanks for their sensitivity and openness.

By framing the poll results as discouraging especially for "this city, the country’s most diverse and cosmopolitan," the Times further flames the very divisions they so egregiously exaggerate in their editorial. While I understand this is an editorial stance and not a traditional news report, the piece does focus on poll results: numerical representations of New Yorkers' views. Yes, the Times has every right to interpret those results as they see fit, but a more fair-minded interpretation would seem to be in order here. Editorial objectives immediately become suspect when editors use numbers in a way that brings accuracy into question. Deep question.

It's one more example, this one by America's most significant sources of news and opinion, of looking at information from a decidedly negative point of view. Perhaps by taking an alternative stance—say, something akin to " . . . with the majority of New Yorkers expressing tolerance for the mosque, perhaps even more could be moved to this level of understanding. And this space will try to encourage further dialogue to that end . . . " —the Times would better serve New Yorkers and all their readers. Until they do, we here at Positively Writing will hold them accountable.