November 23, 2001
From the desk of Jane Galt:DEPARTMENT OF POINTLESS ARTICLES The
DEPARTMENT OF POINTLESS ARTICLES
The New York Times has an editorial saying that official residences (governors, mayors, presidents) are going out of style and losing their utility, except in places where they aren't which seems to include everywhere except New York. Aside from showcasing how parochial the Gray Lady has become, the article seems to be entirely without purpose. Writer's block, or unseemly arrogance? You decide.
On a related note, I really do think that this war has cost the Times its place as the paper of record. The increasingly editorial tone of its articles -- and its refusal, with rare exceptions such as Virginia Postrel, to put intelligent conservatives on its editorial pages -- were already costing it credibility outside of the New York/Washington media cocktail circuit and the groves of academe. My classmates from business school, unlike their elders at the banks and consultancies, didn't even bother getting subscriptions when they moved to New York. The coverage of the war, however, was the nail in the coffin. While the Washington Post was offering a range of viewpoints, the New York Times was accentuating the negative. We couldn't win. Even if it might temporarily look like we were winning, we actually weren't. The Taliban might be on the endangered species list, but there are a lot more where they came from. Etc. My (admittedly somewhat cynical ears) detected a distinct note of glee in all of this. IMHO, there are two reasons for this:
1) Bush is president, and he's actually doing a pretty OK job.
2) The New York Times would rather cover a disaster than a victory because
a) A disaster lasts longer
b) It feels more exciting and important to describe a disaster than to discuss the floats at a victory parade
c) They like being the Voice of Doom. I myself am not immune to the seductive joys of raining on someone else's parade. (pardon the repitition; I couldn't think of another metaphor.)
Anyway, I think that they badly miscalculated, mostly because (as I am far from the first to point out) Punch Salzberger has surrounded himself entirely with people who agree with him. Personally, I think the Post will emerge as the paper of record on the policy side, the Journal on the New York/Business side. But we shall see.
Posted by Jane Galt at November 23, 2001 01:15 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links