The New York Times Betrays Small Business
Yes, after months of silence, the editorialists of The New York Times have finally weighed in with their view of how the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is going. How bad did you expect their editorial to be? It’s that bad, and worse.
In a six-paragraph editorial about toy safety, exactly one paragraph is spent informing readers that anything about the law might have aroused any public criticism. And here is that paragraph: “Unfortunately, the commission has yet to implement important aspects of the new law. The delay has caused confusion and allowed opponents to foment needless fears that the law could injure smaller enterprises like libraries, resale shops and handmade toy businesses.”
Got that? “Confusion” about the law and “delay” in implementing it are the real problems. Fears that small business will be hurt are “needless” and are being “fomented” (the choice of verb is telling) by presumably sinister opponents.
Or, put differently: Anyone who imagines this law might be impractical for libraries, resale shops, handmade-toy businesses or other small businesses is just imagining things–fooled, perhaps, by misinformation spread by the law’s opponents.
….
So small enterprises from coast to coast are just imagining things if they plead desperately for places like the Times to notice that they have already closed down, or will have to do so in the foreseeable future, or have lost thousands of dollars in unsalable inventories. Motorbike dealerships around the country are just imagining things if they think they’re staring at massive losses from the inability to sell their products, even though news-side talent at The New York Times has in fact covered their story well–coverage that the editorial studiously ignores.
For as long as anyone can remember, The New York Times has unthinkingly taken its line on supposed consumer-safety issues from organized groups like Public Citizen and Consumers Union.
Complete commentary at Forbes.com>>
The Overlawyered blog has been following the legislation as well.
For more links about the CPSIA, check out Forbes’ list, “How the CPSIA Wreaks Havoc in Every State.”