PressEthic

The name "Bruce Ratner" now often evokes hisses from many Brooklyn residents in the Prospect Heights/Atlantic Yards area. Ratner, the head of a development group called Forest City Ratner, wants to turn much of this Brooklyn neighborhood into the largest residential and commercial complex the borough has ever seen, creating over 15 new high rises and a new arena for the Nets. Much of this land could be acquired through the power of eminent domain.

Through coincidence, there happens to be an article on eminent domain in today's New York Times. The article, which could only be described as glowing, uses the example of a Minnesota town that, by invoking eminent domain, built a new headquarters for Best Buy and had its residential property values skyrocket.

The curious thing about this article running today, of all days, is that the local community organization Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn hosted a panel discussion this evening regarding the abuse of eminent domain. The target of this panel, which featured a State Senator and a New York City Council member, was Bruce Ratner - who also happens to be building the New York Times' new tower in Manhattan.

Even for non-conspiracy theorists, the timing here is a tad suspect. Let's not kid ourselves – it's not like eminent domain is breaking news. For the Times to run this piece, without making any connection to the Atlantic Yards complex, is at best bad journalism. At worst, though, it's a jolting example of bias towards the Times economic partner.