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Hamilton: NY Times attacks Colorado’s Gorsuch

William Hamilton
Central View
Bill Hamilton.
Courtesy Photo |

Just when we thought The New York Times (NYT) could not get any more ridiculous in its efforts to smear President Trump’s appointees, here comes a story about a private fishing acreage less than a mile from our home in Grand County, Colorado. Here is the NYT’s headline: “Neil Gorsuch Has Web of Ties to Secretive Billionaire.” Sorry NYT, any cub reporter could learn there is nothing “secret” about Philip Anschutz, who is one of the America’s most revered philanthropists. For example: there is nothing secret about the University of Colorado Anschutz Cancer Pavilion in Aurora. Although Mr. Anschutz doesn’t seek the limelight, the companies he owns, his investments, and his donations to various institutions and charities are all well-known matters of public record.

The NYT story was sparked when newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sold his fishing lodge and barn down below the Lake Granby Dam. A photo of the fishing lodge and barn ran right under the headline that implied a nefarious relationship between Justice Gorsuch and a “Secretive Billionaire.” If the NYT were interested in fairness and objectivity, the headline could have read: “Justice Gorsuch Cuts Ties With Business Associates of Billionaire Philanthropist.”

So, here’s the real story: In 2005, several business associates of Mr. Anschutz formed a corporation to buy 40 acres along the Colorado River about a half-mile downstream from the Lake Granby Dam. The location is not secret. Each day, local power and water company employees drive through the property to service the hydro-electric plant at the base of the Lake Granby Dam.



While the sale of the property by Justice Gorsuch is real, the spin that Justice Gorsuch is, somehow, the pawn of a “secretive billionaire” is just another example of the NYT’s “fake news.” But the NYT is not alone in producing fake news. Recall, in 1993, “Dateline NBC” admitted it used incendiary devices to ensure that a fire would erupt if gasoline leaked from the truck being hit by a test car. In 2005, CBS fired four top executives for using forged National Guard documents against President G.W. Bush.

A May 18, Harvard University study found negative MSM coverage of President Trump in these percentages: NYT, 87 percent, Washington Post, 83 percent; CNN and NBC, 93 percent; CBS, 91 percent. Only Fox News came close to “fair and balanced” at 52 percent negative, and 48 percent positive.



In a recent National Review article (May 22, 2017), renowned historian Victor Davis Hanson, listed a few of the “fake news” stories that take up news space and leave little room for real news stories such as the unfolding Obama NSA-FBI surveillance scandal. All fake news. But for what purpose? We report. You decide.


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