New York Times Preaches Inequality is Good to Wealthy Readers

On the page immediately following this article telling the super-wealthy that they should not feel guilty over their skyrocketing gains, is a full-page ad for luxury condos on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Described as The Finest on Fifth, the starting price for the cheapest of these condos is $10.25 million. This is what those in the advertising business call synergy between a publications news and advertising; those who do not see rising inequality as a product of an invisible hand would use a different term.

The June 10 Sunday New York Times Magazine was a special issue titled Inside the Income Gap. Presidential candidate John Edwards appeared on the cover, and Edwards was subject to a lengthy, condescending and unfavorable story from Times Magazine political writer Matt Bai.

Bai and Lowensteins articles set the tone for the issue, which was one of skepticism that there are political solutions to rising income inequality in the United States. Bai concludes that Edwards doesnt seem to have yet thought through how one really builds a mandate for getting Americans committed to a war on poverty; apparently, his proposals for universal health care, new education grants, a living wage, and new union election procedures do not meet Bais test.

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