The Tyranny and Lethargy of the Times Editorial Page

The New York Observer ^ | 2/4/2014 | KEN KURSON

[Beave Meister]

IT’S WELL KNOWN AMONG THE SMALL WORLD of people who pay attention to such things that the liberal-leaning reporters at The Wall Street Journal resent the conservative-leaning editorial page of The Wall Street Journal. What’s less well known—and about to break into the open, threatening the very fabric of the institution—is how deeply the liberal-leaning reporters at The New York Times resent the liberal-leaning editorial page of The New York Times.

The New York Observer has learned over the course of interviews with more than two-dozen current and former Times staffers that the situation has “reached the boiling point” in the words of one current Times reporter. Only two people interviewed for this story agreed to be identified, given the fears of retaliation by someone they criticize as petty and vindictive.

The blame here, in the eyes of most Times reporters to whom The Observer spoke, belongs to Andrew Rosenthal, who as editorial page editor leads both the paper’s opinion pages and opinion postings online, as well as overseeing the editorial board and the letters, columnists and op-ed departments. Mr. Rosenthal is accused of both tyranny and pettiness, by the majority of the Times staffers interviewed for this story. And the growing dissatisfaction with Mr. Rosenthal stems from a commitment to excellence that has lifted the rest of the Times, which is viewed by every staffer The Observer spoke to as rapidly and dramatically improving.

[Beave Meister]

I love watching liberals fight over petty differences. Maybe one of them will have the stones to blow this thing wide open........Nah, never mind.

[YHAOS]

Tears By Me Out The Heart.

[colorado tanker]

I'd say the root cause of the catfight is the Times reporters realize the editorial page has become irrelevant and their columnists are tired and unoriginal. The Wall Street Journal editorial page is far more influential and people will actually pay more for its news content.

It sucks not to be on top anymore, but the Times only has itself to blame.

[mc5cents]

I will play a little "Hearts and Flowers" for them.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

The NY Times is neoliberal. The liberal intelligentsia is more proto-socialist and believes the NYT should tack more left.

The NYT is smart enough to know that there has to be some remnant of a capitalist system around (however overtaxed and overregulated) in order to generate ad revenue.

The liberal intelligentsia is not even that bright. They somehow believe we can repeat the failed experiments of socialism without making any mistakes this time.

[Cicero]

“And the growing dissatisfaction with Mr. Rosenthal stems from a commitment to excellence that has lifted the rest of the Times, which is viewed by every staffer The Observer spoke to as rapidly and dramatically improving.”

The rest of the Times is rapidly and dramatically improving? I guess I must have missed that.

[colorado tanker]

I know. I've heard it ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall: well, we've never really tried communism . . . .

Actually, you have. Lots of times, lots of ways. Result is always the same.

[CincyRichieRich]

I’m a bigger commie than you...

No, I am

No, I am

[Hardastarboard]

FTA:

They’re (the editorials) completely reflexively liberal, utterly predictable, usually poorly written and totally ineffectual.

Duh.

[Charlemagne on the Fox]

This is the priceless gem from the article: Gawker has been particularly hard on Mr. Friedman, with Hamilton Nolan memorably skewering him in a column entitled “Tom Friedman Travels the World to Find Incredibly Uninteresting Platitudes,” as a “mustachioed soothsaying simpleton”; another column was titled “Tom Friedman Does Not Know What’s Happening Here,” and the @firetomfriedman Twitter account has more than 1,800 followers.

Of course, the photo of Joe Nocera, Thomas L. Friedman, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Carmen Reinhart, Andrew Rosenthal, Paul Krugman should be appearing next to dictionary entries of "intellectual black hole" for the next decade.

[miss marmelstein]

Oh, dearie. It’s revealed that Times editorialists and writers are self-absorbed, boorish jerks. Just go to one book party in NYC that includes a Times writer and find out for yourself.