KINGSTON, NY, 16 December 2015—During this historic period of escalating global socioeconomic strife and heightened geopolitical turmoil, the Trends Research Institute is disappointed and dumbfounded by The New York Times’ massive transgender coverage in last Sunday’s edition

The world’s on edge: Terror attacks in Paris. Slaughter in San Bernardino. Equity markets in turmoil. Commodity prices at 16-year lows. Currencies crashing. China’s economy slowing. Venezuela’s inflation at 200 percent. Brazil in deep recession. Emerging markets in peril. Syria, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon… the Middle East is on fire and ready to explode.

Following the downing of a Russian bomber by Turkish jet fighters, the war of words keeps heating up between Russia and Turkey.

Ukraine, Burundi, Mali, Algeria, Nigeria, Congo, Sudan, Somalia… Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Al-Nusra, ISIS, AQIM… revolutions, civil wars, hatred, revenge, attacks, counterattacks.

On the economic homefront, the latest big news hardly making the news that strikes at the very heart and pocketbook of America – once the “land of opportunity” – is that the once-solid middle class has shrunk to minority status: the rich got much richer, big companies merged bigger… and everyone else got poorer.

Yet, none of these issues or other earth-shaping events and factors leading to more wars, increased terrorism and global financial turmoil that have direct cause and effect on quality life for millions warranted a fraction of the in-depth reporting as did the five-page package that dominated Sunday’s New York Times: ” ‘A Whole New Being’ – How Kricket Nimmons Seized the Transgender Moment.”

“As trend forecasters, we rely on hard news and solid facts to identify the current events forming future trends,” said Gerald Celente, publisher of The Trends Journal and founder/director of the Trends Research Institute. “If I were one of those ‘inquiring minds that need to know’ about Kricket Nimmons, who he or she is or what he or she wants to be… or would like to become, I would have subscribed to The National Enquirer and not The New York Times,” Celente said.

“It is much more than a waste of money and a waste of time,” Celente concluded. “Expending grossly disproportionate resources on Sunday’s coverage of the sexual-identity struggle of one person, augmented by layers of multimedia and earlier content online and in print, is distracting society from the mega-trends shaping the future and their global, national and societal implications.”

Trend Forecast: With the print media world so devastated by cutbacks, society is reliant on outlets (such as The Times) with the resources to investigate and deliver original agenda-free reporting on the broader socioeconomic and geopolitical issues that affect so many at so many different levels. New media outlets that fill current print and broadcast news gaps with hard, trend-focused reporting will find large audiences and attract faithful followers.