Temple prof blasts Times

over weak 9/11 reporting

The New York Times came under fire from a scientist who has doggedly criticized mainstream media over their reporting of events surrounding the 9/11 attacks.

Joshua Mitteldorf, a statistics professor at Temple University, complained in a letter to the New York Times public editor, Arthur Brisbane, about the poverty of Times investigative reporting concerning 9/11, contrasting it with mountains of evidence implying coverup amassed by "thousands" of professors, scientists and others. Mitteldorf has expertise in physics and evolutionary biology.

Mitteldorf's letter:

Dear Mr Brisbane-

I find it particularly ironic that the Times is writing about the challenge presented by covering the anniversary of 9/11, with no mention of the glaring absence of investigative reporting on the issue. Thousands of college professors, scientists and amateur journalists have discovered and publicized anomalies in the official account of the day, and the two authors of the Kean-Hamilton report have disavowed their own findings on the op-ed page of the Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02kean.html. And yet, the Times itself has provided readers with no critical assessment of the Bush Administration's story, or even a glimpse into the world of 9/11 scholarship that has grown in the vacuum created by mainstream media.

--Josh Mitteldorf, PhD
Dept of Statistics
Temple University
Philadelphia, PA