Former NY Times editor on Mexico's crony capitalist

On the Media transcript, Andres Martinez: ""I don't think The New York Times would have struck a deal with a tycoon of a similar profile from Russia or, say, Israel or Iraq or many countries that matter more, journalistically, in the U.S.

And in this sense, I feel, as a - somebody who grew up in Mexico that our neighboring country’s being treated with the soft bigotry of low expectations [BROOKE LAUGHS], but in the sense that, well,

• it’s Mexico, we don't really need to worry about it,

• who knows how people make money down there, and the fact that

• The New York Times is not covering the crony capitalism in Mexico, the inequality that

• feeds a lot of the social unrest....

And it’s not just about Mexico. Mr. Slim’s America Movil cellphone company has businesses in more than a dozen Latin American countries.

• In Latin America the perception will be this is now Mr. Slim’s newspaper.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: You write that even if and when Slim is inevitably criticized by The Times again, he'll win again. How so?

ANDRES MARTINEZ: That's right. I think it’s a win-win proposition for him. The greatest benefit for him is it legitimizes him. It gives him a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval within Mexico.

• It’s the same reason that foreign tycoons give to the
• Clinton Foundation,

• that they go to Davos;

• it’s the same reason Andrew Carnegie built libraries.

• It diffuses any criticism within Mexico, because

if The New York Times, of any institution, will partner up with Carlos Slim, he must be okay....

ANDRES MARTINEZ: I think the test for The New York Times is going to be as the situation in Mexico continues to deteriorate as a result of drug violence,

• but also as a result of this crony capitalism,

is The New York Times going to continue to neglect that story? And to the extent that

• The New York Times editorializes against economic inequality in the U.S. or in other parts of the world

• and neglects the very same phenomenon in Mexico,

that’s going to raise troubling questions, because it really is a story about whether a weak state can rein in the likes of Carlos Slim."...1/30/09, 'The Real Slim Shady,' via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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