Text originally published April 12, 2024 Requiem for The New York Times - by Mr. Fish NEW YORK: I am sitting in the auditorium at The New York Times. It is the first time I have been back in nearly two decades. It will be the last. The newspaper is a pale reflection of what it was when I worked there, beset by numerous journalistic fiascos, rudderless leadership and myopic cheerleading of the military debacles in the Middle East, Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza, where one of the Times contributions to the mass slaughter of Palestinians was an editorial
I worked at the “Times” as an art director in the late 1970s--1981. I could see even then that they had tethered themselves, their editors and by extension their reporters, to the official line of spin spewed from the D.C. elite. It was an awakening to my naive young self. I soon left the corporation, returning to the Midwest to honest work for The Progressive magazine. I never looked back but with confidence in my decision.
Not only has the NYT not recovered but in a leaked memo to it's Middle Eastern reporters as cited by the Intercept (below), the Times issued "guidelines" that they use the word "Palestine" sparingly and to not use words such as "occupied territory," "genocide," "ethnic cleansing," "refugee camps," or "inflammatory words" like "slaughter" or "massacre" which convey emotions, but rather to focus on "precision." (like drones). And so on.... Disappearing the people of Gaza/Palestine just as Israel has done.
As a person raised in New York who once perhaps naively respected the Times of long ago, it is heartbreaking to witness above all the enormous loss, and attempts at erasure, of so many innocent Palestinian/Gazan lives, but also the loss and gradual disillusion, this Requiem, for the New York Times. In the mainstream U.S. media, the Left and the Right have merged. That loss must be so deeply felt by those of integrity, liked Chris, who worked for years and gave them so much.
The demise of the Times is symptomatic of the general corporatization of the World. The rise of Finance, with its utter greed & power driven sociopathic amorality, has infested every dream and ambition of humanity. No longer does a Boeing engineer work his way to the Board of Directors through is hands on knowledge of plane design and experience with the business itself. Now it’s anti-Labor subcontracting and cost cutting to squeeze more profits for stock buy backs. While Boeing planes are no longer trusted. This is a global phenomena requiring a full on international Labor and Progressive hard core push back, to regain integrity and democracy.
The main value of any MSM outlet is not as a source of news, information or even analysis. It is as a guide as to what a carefully curated slice of the PMC is expected to think on a series of issues and what issues they are supposed to think of as important and how important and what they are supposed to think about them. Anything not in that MSM feed can be safely ignored.
I worked at the “Times” as an art director in the late 1970s--1981. I could see even then that they had tethered themselves, their editors and by extension their reporters, to the official line of spin spewed from the D.C. elite. It was an awakening to my naive young self. I soon left the corporation, returning to the Midwest to honest work for The Progressive magazine. I never looked back but with confidence in my decision.
Not only has the NYT not recovered but in a leaked memo to it's Middle Eastern reporters as cited by the Intercept (below), the Times issued "guidelines" that they use the word "Palestine" sparingly and to not use words such as "occupied territory," "genocide," "ethnic cleansing," "refugee camps," or "inflammatory words" like "slaughter" or "massacre" which convey emotions, but rather to focus on "precision." (like drones). And so on.... Disappearing the people of Gaza/Palestine just as Israel has done.
As a person raised in New York who once perhaps naively respected the Times of long ago, it is heartbreaking to witness above all the enormous loss, and attempts at erasure, of so many innocent Palestinian/Gazan lives, but also the loss and gradual disillusion, this Requiem, for the New York Times. In the mainstream U.S. media, the Left and the Right have merged. That loss must be so deeply felt by those of integrity, liked Chris, who worked for years and gave them so much.
https://theintercept.com/2024/04/15/nyt-israel-gaza-genocide-palestine-coverage/
The demise of the Times is symptomatic of the general corporatization of the World. The rise of Finance, with its utter greed & power driven sociopathic amorality, has infested every dream and ambition of humanity. No longer does a Boeing engineer work his way to the Board of Directors through is hands on knowledge of plane design and experience with the business itself. Now it’s anti-Labor subcontracting and cost cutting to squeeze more profits for stock buy backs. While Boeing planes are no longer trusted. This is a global phenomena requiring a full on international Labor and Progressive hard core push back, to regain integrity and democracy.
The main value of any MSM outlet is not as a source of news, information or even analysis. It is as a guide as to what a carefully curated slice of the PMC is expected to think on a series of issues and what issues they are supposed to think of as important and how important and what they are supposed to think about them. Anything not in that MSM feed can be safely ignored.
"Shine on you crazy diamond."
This is the rantings of a biased political chattering class member, and not a journalist that advocates newspapers simply report the news.
The population of people like this working at the NYT is why it is in the toilet.
Well, Chris, as bad as things always seem to be at least you get to go home to Eunice.