Posted on 04/19/2014 11:53:49 PM PDT by Nachum
I began reading the entirety of the first section of the New York Times at nine years old, and continued that practice, more or less, for decades. I regarded The Times with a sort of reverence, as have many in this country and the wider world, and now see that its influence, because of its history and standing in the culture, is much wider than one might think for a newspaper, even a so-called “paper of record” that “sets the news table” for the United States. For example I have heard, way too many times, that a friend or colleague “didn’t see [the story] in The Times” so it couldn’t be real or relevant.
With legions of people like me, whose psycho-emotional posture underwent a thoughtless daily reset by The Times for decades, its influence on the mindset of our nation cannot be overestimated. How could it possibly be true that, as the New York Times goes, so goes the nation? Yet it is true, and the refusal or inability to understand its influence is grounded, I believe, in two main areas of misunderstanding or ignorance: first, people don’t grasp the multitude of stance-shaping options that are open to the “newspaper of record”; and, perhaps more importantly, they don’t appreciate the power of reverence and what could be called the “cascade” of The Times.
Regarding the first factor, most readers, in my experience, simply don’t think about the importance of a newspaper’s structure…in ways analogous to their not marking, for example, the influence of architecture on their psychic state. But the influence and potential manipulation of a newspaper’s structure is undeniable.
To illustrate: how could I, as a partisan newspaper editor and staff, guide the opinions and stance of my readers?
-- I could ignore a story, which would convey
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Great article.
NYT = American Pravda...
How well I remember a “friend” of mine from the 70/80s.
He went from a simple middle American to a classical pseudo intellectual liberal in a short few years.
When I last visited him, (OK, it must have been almost 30 years ago) I noticed that he had a very neatly folded, as if just off of the print line, copy of the New York Slimes. It was perfectly positioned on his coffee table, at just the right angle.
The poor guy could have been given an award for being Mr. pretentious of the century.
Nevertheless, like all lib media sources, it's not what they print or air, it's what they don't print or air. And since the Times's readers never get the full story, according to the dictum, they are not fully free. I'm sure they don't believe that, but it would be wonderful to have a truth-checker on the Times to give the real story countering all the lies or plain ignoring of important stories that goes on at the Times.
This is the key. People can get smug, isolated, and ignorant living in bubbles. This isn't unique to the left by any means, but given the leftist tilt of the MSM and academia, the left today is particularly vulnerable. Everyone should spend some quality time with opposing points of view.
At some point the NYT may have been a respectable news source but for the last 50 years it has been the propaganda mouthpiece for the leftist movement.
bump
Last I checked it's over $2.
Good crossword puzzle.
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