NY Times: Target Rudy And 9/11

I'm not questioning the accuracy of a piece allegedly exposing a would be 9/11 survivor in today's New York Times. Though it is ironic that they'd use a picture of her with Rudy when no such picture was used featuring Hillary Clinton when they did a similar story on Cesar A. Borja, whose son accompanied Hillary Clinton to one of Bush's State of the Union addresses. Still, given that we are six years on from 9/11, the details of today's story coupled with a previous editorial do suggest that the New York Times is actively working to undermine the image around 9/11.

I'm not in any way supporting Ms. Head, if she is indeed a fraud. But given the record, involving employment at Merrill Lynch, alleged ties to other 9/11 families and now many prominent politicians and organizations, I'm left wondering just where was the New York Times during the six years this myth was allegedly created?

For all the apparent self-promotion of Tonia Head, there's only one reference to her in a search of NY Times archives - and that's today's story. To coin a couple of phrases, what did the New York Times know, when did they know it - and why is it that we are only reading it now in a story with a prominent picture of her with Rudy Giuliani? Lastly, let's just say I question the timing. Either that, or a news organization that professes to be one of the world's best isn't very effective, given that this story played out right under its nose for six years and they either didn't sniff it out, or kept it hidden until they could use it to play a little politics of the anti-Giuliani kind.

Given the above and their recent misguided attack on Blackwater, it's should be increasingly clear to even their supporters that the New York Times has given up the news business for a full time pursuit of its political agenda.

Much of Ms. Head’s account was posted on the Web site of the World Trade Center Survivors’ Network, a nonprofit organization for which she served as president and as point person for corporate donations.

But no part of her story, it turns out, has been verified.

The family and friends of the man to whom she claimed to be engaged say they have never heard of Tania Head and view the relationship she describes with the man, who truly died in the north tower, as an impossibility.

A spokeswoman for Merrill Lynch & Company, where she told people she worked at the time of the terror attack, said the company had no record of employing a Tania Head.

And few people, it seems, who embraced the gripping immediacy and pain of her account ever asked the name of the man whose ring she had returned, or that of the hospital where she was treated, or the identities of the people she met with in the south tower on the morning of 9/11.

“She never shared those details, and it was nothing we wanted to probe,” said Alison Crowther, the mother of Welles Remy Crowther, a man who died on 9/11 and who is credited with rescuing a number of people from the south tower, including, by Ms. Head’s account, Ms. Head. “I felt it was too private and painful for her.”

In recent weeks, The New York Times sought to interview Ms. Head about her experiences on 9/11 because she had, in other settings, presented a poignant account of survival and loss. But she canceled three scheduled interviews, citing her privacy and emotional turmoil, and declined to provide details to corroborate her story. During a telephone conversation on Tuesday, she would not explain her reticence, saying only that she had not filed any claims with the federal Victim Compensation Fund. “I have done nothing illegal,” Ms. Head said.

She has retained a lawyer, Stephanie Furgang Adwar, to represent her. Also on Tuesday, in response to a question about the accuracy of Ms. Head’s account, Ms. Adwar said in an e-mail message, “With regard to the veracity of my client’s story, neither my client, nor I, have any comment.”

Comments

[chris]

Waaa! The bad libruls at the NY Times showed a crook in a picture with Rudy "The Urban Legend" Giuliani. Bad, bad libruls!!

[Other Ed]

If they want to show a picture of Rudy with crooks, all they have to do is show a picture of him with his own father, uncle and cousin who are all convicted felons:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0027,barrett,16192,1.html

[chris]

Amazing. No wonder his own kids hate him and his 'princess'.

[Fred Beloit]

"If they want to show a picture of Rudy with crooks, all they have to do is show a picture of him with his own father, uncle and cousin who are all convicted felons:..."

"AP) Former President Clinton says he regrets the last-minute pardon he gave to fugitive financier Marc Rich because it has tarnished his reputation."

He could also have his picture taken with Mark Rich and HIS friend Bill.

[Juliani/Kerick2008]

. . . or Mark Rich and his lawyer: also a convicted felon.

[Fred Beloit]

Tell me, Mr. christamfordmum, how do you feel about your presidential candidates none of whom, have a plan for complete withdrawal from Iraq earlier than the end of 2008? And even that deadline is from Richardson who has zero chance of winning the nomination. Congratulations on an outstanding slate. Slate on hateriot.

[ec1009]

Your candidates Fred, have a "plan" for keeping our troops there forever. F.U. plus infinity!

F.U. of course refers to a "Friedman Unit" and was not a personal insult. If you want one, how about "Your mother has erotic dreams about Hitlery." I apologise in advance for violating Godwin's Law with respect to Hitlery.

Who is this Godwin and who gave him the authority to write laws for bloggers?

[seekeronos]

Because Godwin's distantly related to Chuck Norris, and he said so.

Of course, there might be a hidden corollary to Godwin's law about never, ever mentioning his distant relationship to Chuck Norris.

That said, that there could be anyone alive who could find anything even remotely erotic about St. Hitlary of the Pantsuited Cankled Bovines suggests an event noteworthy of ringing up Mr. Ripley and his esteemed syndicated newspaper column.

[Fred Beloit]

Hahaha, ec is a well-educated regressive. The Friedman Unit was, how shall I say, discovered by none other than that model of logic, detachment, and objectivity, Atrios the Great. For this he received no less that the Best New Phrase of the Year award from ta tata dah, Huffington Post. But tell me, my electro-carbon meister, how many FUs have we been in Germany, Korea and Kosovo?