Posted on 11/15/2004 9:56:07 AM PST by Cableguy
William Safire will publish his final column as a New York Times Op-Ed columnist on January 24, 2005.
Arthur Sulzberger Jr, publisher of The New York Times, said, "The New York Times without Bill Safire is all but unimaginable. Bill's provocative and insightful commentary has held our readers captive since he first graced our Op-Ed Page in 1973. Reaching for his column became a critical and enjoyable part of the day for our readers across the country and around the world. Whether you agreed with him or not was never the point. His writing is delightful, informed and engaging. So, too, is the man, who in addition to being a world-class columnist has been a world-class friend and colleague to a generation of Times men and women."
Mr. Safire, 74, will continue to write his Sunday column, "On Language," which has appeared in The New York Times Magazine since 1979 and has led to the publication of 15 books, making him one of the most widely read writers on the English language. He is also the author of 10 other works of fiction and nonfiction and editor of five anthologies. No successor to Mr. Safire as an Op-Ed columnist has been chosen at this time.
"After more than three decades of opinionated reporting on the world's first and foremost political battle page, it's time to hang up my hatchet," said Mr. Safire. "The Times said at the start of this run that it wanted 'another point of view,' which was what it surely got, and its editors did not wince nor cry aloud. In my more scholarly persona, I couldn't resist continuing as Sunday language maven, so although Mr. Hyde will close up shop, Dr. Jekyll will carry on."
In 1978, Mr. Safire was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. Before joining The Times in 1973 as a political columnist, Mr. Safire was a senior White House speechwriter for President Nixon. He had previously been a radio and television producer and a U.S. Army correspondent. He began his career in 1949 as a reporter for a profiles column in The New York Herald Tribune.
From 1955 to 1960, Mr. Safire was vice president of a public relations firm in New York City and then became president of his own firm. He was responsible for bringing Mr. Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev together in the 1959 Moscow "kitchen debate" to publicize his homebuilding client's kitchen. In 1968, he left to join the campaign of Richard Nixon.
Mr. Safire attended Syracuse University, dropped out after two years, returned twice later to deliver commencement addresses, and is now a trustee. He served as a member of the Pulitzer Board from 1995 to 2004. Since 1993, he has been active with the Dana Foundation, a philanthropy supporting brain science, immunology, and arts education. He is currently its chairman and will make this his principal occupation.
The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2003 revenues of $3.2 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 16 other newspapers, eight network-affiliated television stations, two New York City radio stations and more than 40 Web sites, including NYTimes.com and Boston.com. For the fourth consecutive year, the Company was ranked No. 1 in the publishing industry in Fortune's 2004 list of America's Most Admired Companies. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.
Gee, what so-so conservative will they now label "conservative New York Times Columnist"? Am I mistaken or is he the only columnist that gets a label?
I think the NYT will replace Safire with another hard, pipe hitt'n conservative like Tucker Carlson.
Tucker Carlson probably has a woodie just thinking about it.
D'oh! I can't believe somebody named Tucker before me!
1.) Ann Coulter
What shameless hypocrisy. What an absolute load of bunk.
The truth is that the NY Times without a left-wing, anti-American, anti-Bush, anti-Christian, and anti-Israel bias of almost olympian proportions would be all but unimaginable to its loyal cadre of left-wing America-hating readers.
Arlen Specter or someone like him.
Immediately promote her to news editor in chief...and watch the NYT readership in the red states explode.
Tucker gets a woody thinking about men, period.
Be careful. You can be banned for mentioning AC and ponying up pichters.
"Gee, what so-so conservative..."
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that David Brooks character supposedly a conservative? I see him jawing it with Mark Shields on the News Hour (PBS). Brooks makes me clinch my fists, so he's the perfect so-so.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that David Brooks character supposedly a conservative?
I think he’ bipolitical.
In other words, both sides of the aisle are a little embarrassed to have been associated with him.
With Bill Safire leaving, the NY Times is losing probably its last link to the days when the paper had credibility and was known as the "paper of record". I suppose replacing Bill with Ann Coulter is out of the question.
> The Company's core purpose is to enhance society ...
Uh, according to whose standards of enhancement?
Anyway, a telling admission.
The naming of the replacement for Safire will tell
us if the NYT intends to reform, or to continue its
self-destruction.
My bet is continued wallowing in the liberal cess.
Novak is a pretty poor excuse for a conservative. Modern era conservatives are optimistic, and with good reason; Novak could not be less so. IMHO Novak can't hold a candle to Safire; what the Times could really use is a Mark Steyn.
Have you read her new book, "How to talk to a Liberal (if you must)"?
She's freakin' FANTASTIC as an essayist, but the NYT editorial board would rather set themselves aflame than read her every week, and I suspect their readership is in lockstep.
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