I wonder if my letter to the NYT ombudsman had an effect. I should add that Neuman's final sentence ends with a preposition--that should give you an idea of his grammatical incompetence, as well as his political incompetence:
"This [Neuman's reporting] is unabashed editorializing, the sort of thing I would expect from the NY Post. Back in the day your paper had Shirley Christian writing such garbage but at least she was balanced by Raymond Bonner. What an embarrassment for the newspaper of record." --- NY Times, Mar. 1 2014 Slum Dwellers in Caracas Ask, What Protests? By WILLIAM NEUMAN CARACAS, Venezuela — On the east side of this capital city, where the rich people tend to live, most children have stayed home from school for more than a week, protest bonfires burn in the streets at night, stores shut early and carnival celebrations have been canceled. But on the west side, where many of the poor people live under tin roofs, you would hardly know that the country has been stirred by weeks of unrest. Schools operate normally, restaurants serve up arepas, and residents, enjoying the extra days off that President Nicolás Maduro has given the country, prepare to crown their carnival queens. Both sides of this city, the better off and the poorer, are dealing with many of the same frustrations: one of the world’s worst inflation rates, hours spent in line to buy food and other basic goods in short supply, and rampant violent crime. But while the poor are often hit especially hard by these troubles, the protests shaking the capital this month have been dominated by the city’s middle- and upper-class residents. They have poured into the streets of their neighborhoods en masse, turning them into barricaded redoubts. Yet in the city’s poorer sections, life has mostly gone on as usual. The split personality in this city mirrors the deep divide that cleaves this oil-rich nation into supporters and opponents of the socialist-inspired revolution begun by Hugo Chávez, who was president for 14 years until he died nearly a year ago. Tensions from that longstanding rift have exploded in protests sweeping the country against the government of Mr. Chávez’s successor, Mr. Maduro, resulting in violent clashes between civilians and National Guard soldiers. More than a dozen people have been killed, with security forces implicated in several cases. Mr. Maduro, speaking at a conference called to promote dialogue, said a soldier was killed on Friday in Valencia, the country’s third-largest city. For all the upheaval, the disconnect between wealthier and poorer areas could seriously limit the impact of the protest movement, a weakness that some of its leaders seem keenly aware of. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
