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![]() Caveat lector
THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2004
GONE SPEAKIN: Were speechifyin at a midwestern college. Incomparably, we return Monday morning. SHIPWRECK: We commented several times this week about the Good Shipwreck New York Times. With that in mind, we suggest you look at a few more e-mails sent by the Times public editor office. (Let the Monthlys Kevin Drum be your guide.) Readers wrote public ed Daniel Okrent about last weeks presidential press conference. Had reporters from the New York Times submitted their questions to the White House in advance? Arthur Bovino replied to these questions, and his answers were simply amazing; he showed no sign of understanding that such a practice would constitute grave misconduct. We thought our readers were getting weird mail from Okrents officeuntil we saw the remarkable e-mails sent out on this topic.
Whats going on at the New York Times? Call it an ongoing meltdown. On Monday, for example, Jodi Wilgoren covered Kerrys Meet the Press session; her insistence on typing a Tired Old Script was, simply put, an embarrassment. Meanwhile, Elisabeth Bumiller penned her latest White House Letterthe latest in a string of fawning epistles directed at lovable Bush. The Washington Times would be laughed out of town if it published such serial nonsense. Meanwhile, when readers complained about Bumillers fawning, Okrents answers completely evaded their questions; frankly, the public editor at the New York Times seems unable to read. And of course, Katharine Kit Seelye is constantly lurking about in the shadows; last week, she penned one of her standard bizarro reports, a piece in which she trashed Kerrys religion. She made a joke of Election 2000, and seems prepared to do so again. In short, the New York Times is an utter wreck, at least in its political coverage; increasingly, its hard to believe that the papers strange election reporting is some sort of coincidence. (More on this odd matter next week.) Meanwhile, youll read about this in few other places; career writers hate addressing these topics. But the ongoing meltdown at the Times should be a point of the greatest concern. Our society cant function without a strong press. As we look at the Times strange work, that strong press is more and more just a dreamsomething children read about in eighth-grade civics texts. |