The Eminent Domain

The Times has some not-shocking news today about the Yankee Stadium “community benefits agreement.” According to the article, the board of the new entity charged with giving $1.2 million in annual cash contributions — or in game tickets and athletic gear, if the Yankees prefer that — to Bronx community organizations hasn’t met yet, and hasn’t even registered with the IRS. The group’s acting chairman is a contributor to Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, who brokered the agreement along with three Bronx councilmembers and the Yankees’ Randy Mastro (who, incidentally, was formerly Mayor Giuliani’s right hand).

Kudos to the Times for reporting the story, but what’s up with this, in the second paragraph?: “The deal was similar to agreements in other major projects, like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and Columbia University’s expansion into Harlem.”

Similar how, exactly? Aha: Carrión and the Yankees called the deal a Community Benefits Agreement…and so did the groups negotiating in Brooklyn and Harlem. Ergo, the Times calls the Yankee Stadium agreement a CBA, too. Further down in the story, reporter Timothy Williams clarifies: “The agreement for Yankee Stadium was unusual, however, because it was not negotiated or signed by community members.”

Unusual. Note to copy desk: “Bogus” might be a better word. By its own admission, by calling the Yankee Stadium deal a CBA the Times is using a term, supplied by the subject of its story, that blatantly misrepresents the origins and purpose of the enterprise.

Can you say WMD? It’s mind-blowing that in 2008, the Times is still allowing itself, and the public, to be manipulated by fraudulent misuse of language by the powerful. The Yankee Stadium deal is simply not a community benefits agreement, no matter what Carrión says.