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Newspapers fight the power -- as long as the power is a losing NBA coach and not the White House

Here's a tale of two New York newspapers, proving that journalists can still question authority, fight the power, and all that other good stuff -- as long as the authority is a hapless coach in the NBA...and not the White House.

Let's start in Madison Square Garden, where a fan was tossed from a recent Knicks game for holding aloft a sign urging the firing of coach Isiah Thomas, who amazingly is still employed even though his team is arguably the worst in the NBA and even though he was slammed around in a sexual harassment lawsuit to boot. Ironically, Madison Square Garden is one of the few privately owned arenas in modern sports, and that means the team was within its legal rights to toss the guy.

But that didn't stop one New York tabloid from calling for a public insurrection:

But today, the New York Daily News took things a step further, printing a full page "FIRE ISIAH" sign inside its editions.

The black and white sign, with the instructions that it is "to be held up during next Knicks blowout," was placed next to the story about the fan's ejection, with a headline reading, "NO, YOU GET OUT, ISIAH." How many will wave the sign and risk ejection?

The rival New York Times loves this story, as evidenced by its own coverage:

In between the carolers and the jackhammer, near the marquee, about two dozen people chanted, waved signs and collected signatures on a big petition urging the Garden to fire Isiah Thomas, the coach and president of a Knicks team that was 7-17 before Wednesday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Of course, some very good reporters at the New York Times have had some bigger fish to fry this week: The White House, and its involvement in the decision to destroy two torture tapes by the CIA. Its most recent article, suggesting deeper Bush administration involvement than previously known, made the president and his staff very unhappy, probably as unhappy as Knicks officials are with the NY Daily News right now.

The difference?

The New York Times has changed the subheadline in Wednesday’s front-page story on the CIA’s destruction of secret interrogation tapes, following a formal request by the White House.

The correction has already been made online, and there will be a print correction in the paper, according to a Times representative.

Newspapers should correct mistakes of course, but it seems what's going here is not a mistake but what should have been a small quibble over, to paraphase Bill Clinton, what your definition of the term "White House" is. And the New York Times shouldn't surrender to authority over such a small quibble.

The moral of the story here is that newspapers are fearless and even willing to shed the sacred mantle of objectivity, as long as the issue is something as trivial as basketball. Of course, the Times will always be our good grey lady, but could you imagine a supposedly spunky tabloid like the NY Daily News publishing the headline, "Hey George, Waterboard This!" next to a printed banner reading "IMPEACH BUSH."

That would be silly. Because torture actually matters.

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