Posted on 06/04/2003 1:57:29 AM PDT by kattracks
If the New York Yankees were having the kind of year The New York Times is, they'd be in the cellar, or maybe the minors.
L'affaire Blair is still sending out ripples, or rather tsunamis. The more The Times talks about it, the worse The Times looks. The red flags that covered Jayson Blair's whole career seem to have been mistaken for laurels. As for the editor who kept him on, Howell Raines, his resignation was never offered, let alone accepted.
Meanwhile, more details emerge every day about the star system at The Times and its nefarious results.
Will the uproar never end?
The latest casualty is Rick Bragg, one of the great Southern storytellers of our times. His book about his mama is a must read, and it would have been a small classic in the literature of filial piety if I'd edited it.
I wouldn't have changed a word about the author's mother, his family or his growing up in Alabama, but I'd have cut out all the beeswax about his great career at the even greater New York Times, "the temple of our profession." Yes, he actually used that phrase.
It turns out that, as a reporter, Rick Bragg was a great rewrite man. His byline appeared over datelined material actually gathered by stringers and go-fers, leaving the impression that he'd been on the scene instead of just polishing others' notes.
Another product of the star system, Rick Bragg now speaks of the "poisonous atmosphere" at the Temple, and has quit rather than accept a brief suspension. It's probably a good decision on his part, if a huffy one; his real talent is for reminiscence. I can hardly wait to read his first novel.
Then there's the case of Maureen Dowd, a fashion columnist out of her depth. She was born to write catty appraisals of the frothy Clinton Era, but now seems to have used ellipses to distort a quote from the current, serious president -- just for the sake of a cheap dig. As a columnist, I live in fear of making such a polemical slip by accident, but hers seems to have been deliberate. Not done.
When her distorted quote began drawing flak, Ms. Dowd ran the unexpurgated quote from the president in a later column, ostensibly only to criticize another part of it. (That criticism had problems of its own, but that's another subject.) What's striking is that there was no apology, no explanation, no nothin' about her earlier dereliction.
It's as if Ms. Dowd ran the complete quote just to cover herself -- so she could say she quoted the president in full at some point -- rather than take responsibility for what she'd done earlier. This second little maneuver only aggravates the first. The first showed a contempt for truth; this one shows a contempt for her readers, who aren't supposed to see what's going on here. It just may be too much to expect a columnist for the Temple of Our Profession to admit that she was wrong, shamefully wrong.
And this just in: The rot has spread to The Times' Boston bureau, its wholly owned Boston Globe. A column critical of Howell Raines, the Times' major-domo, was held out of the Globe -- at least until its unbridled competitor, the Boston Herald, got wind of it. (God, I love tabloids. They keep us honest.)
It sounds familiar. Remember when the Times held back sports columnist Dave Anderson's column? He'd departed from its editorial line, news stories and general all-out war against the Augusta National golf club. (If only The Times had been as tough on Saddam Hussein.) Dave Anderson's column finally ran, but only after being held back long enough to cause the maximum embarrassment.
If a newspaper doesn't dare run columns that disagree with its own, what does that say about its confidence in those opinions? There's got to be a better rejoinder to columnists who disagree with the paper than Shut Up.
Besides, columns that don't toe the editorial line make the newspaper more interesting. Which is the way newspapers, and life, should be.
And here's the greatest advantage of running columnists with a different point of view: It adds to the paper's credibility. It demonstrates that the newspaper isn't trying to keep other opinions from You the Reader -- that it's happy to print all sides and take on all comers.
A robust exchange of opinion has its uses in a free country, and on a free newspaper. An interesting paper ought to be a satisfying mix -- of straight news and assorted nuts.
©2003 Tribune Media Services
Besides, columns that don't toe the editorial line make the newspaper more interesting. Which is the way newspapers, and life, should be.
And here's the greatest advantage of running columnists with a different point of view: It adds to the paper's credibility. It demonstrates that the newspaper isn't trying to keep other opinions from You the Reader -- that it's happy to print all sides and take on all comers.
Besides, columns that don't toe the editorial line make the newspaper more interesting. Which is the way newspapers, and life, should be.
And here's the greatest advantage of running columnists with a different point of view: It adds to the paper's credibility. It demonstrates that the newspaper isn't trying to keep other opinions from You the Reader -- that it's happy to print all sides and take on all comers.
Yeah Maureen, you're looking pretty old right about now.
Liberal view: "You, the great masses are too stupid to know what's best for you, so, we, the enlighted ones, will make all decisions for you. We'll tell you what you need to know".
For years, I thought Greenberg also coined "Transitional Ethics", which so perfectly describes "Slick Willie", but in Greenberg's book, he credits someone else with that one.
Liberal view: "You, the great masses are too stupid to know what's best for you, so, we, the enlighten ones, will make all decisions for you. We'll tell you what you need to know".
Liberal view: "You, the great masses are too stupid to know what's best for you, so, we, the enlighten ones, will make all decisions for you. We'll tell you what you need to know".
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