PressEthic

According to The New York Times, Ferrer accused the media of bias against him in an interview with the Spanish-language paper El Diario.

Mr. Ferrer has run for mayor in the past so he’s not new to the city’s tough political campaigns. Yet, he makes this statement: “I thought that I would overcome partiality, especially after the primaries. I thought that being the first Latino nominated by the Democratic Party in New York would mean something.” What he wasn’t able to do was translate that into a fresh perspective to present to the people that would be voting for him, Latino or not. As an experienced candidate, he should've come better armed with information to give the media. They can’t report what’s not there.

Furthermore, in the eyes of many, Mayor Bloomberg is genuinely doing a good job. Plus, he was able to tap into the average New Yorker’s frame of mind with costly polling methods. Bloomberg’s poll categorized people in terms of their concerns, something that the broad strokes of Ferrer’s “two New Yorks” and grassroots background couldn’t.

As evidenced by students in their bias presentations for our Press Ethics class, journalists weren’t kind to Mr. Ferrer. He was always presented as the underdog in articles and poll numbers. I heard people murmuring about the timing of that heightened terror alert, so perhaps the media didn’t look into that as they should’ve. And I’m proud that a Latino was running for mayor for the first time. But that simply wasn’t enough and the media can’t take all the blame for his loss.

To take a little jab, the Times is sure to note in the article that Mr. Ferrer “does not place blame on himself at any point in the El Diario interview.”