Opinion Forum

Saving The New York Times

April 2nd, 2009

Bill Keller, Executive Editor of the financially troubled New York Times, said in a speech at Stanford University today,

Saving the New York Times now ranks with saving Darfur as a high-minded cause.

Maybe they should get a bailout from the government. Then we could own The New York Times, and the White House and Democrats in Congress could dictate what they write. That wouldn’t result in changes at the NYT now, but what about when Republicans are in control again? Hmmm?

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: arrogance, press
Categories: Humor, Media | Comments (3) | Home

3 Responses to “Saving The New York Times”

Brian Bagent | April 3rd, 2009 at 3:02 am

They’ve lost readership because they rarely, if ever, print anything that is right-leaning or libertarian. Their editorial board is notoriously lefty. One POV, no matter where it lies on the political spectrum, is never healthy.

I’d bet a paycheck that Keller is all for the Fairness Doctrine in radio, but I’d also bet he’d be the first to throw a wall-eyed fit if the same were suggested of the print media.

I ran into the same stupidity when I was studying philosophy at the University of Houston. All political and economic philosophy was from left field. No Friedman, no von Mises, no Rand, no Heinlein, very little Kant, no Locke, no Bastiat, no Wittgenstein, no von Hayek, no Godel…

As the saying goes, when your only tool is a hammer, all the world looks like a nail.

Chris Wysocki | April 3rd, 2009 at 11:31 am

Is Keller serious? Or was this an April Fool’s joke?

Saving the New York Times is morally equivalent to saving Darfur? The loss of ad revenue is a crisis on par with genocide? Mr. Keller’s lack of perspective is astonishing.

Kevin | April 3rd, 2009 at 2:22 pm

The New York Times, like printed newspapers everywhere, is losing readers because they are an anachronism. Just as the horse-drawn cart gave way to the automobile, printed newspapers are increasingly seen as less and less relevant in a society with an ever-expanding cyber component and an increasingly complex family life. Long gone are the “Leave it to Beaver” days when dad bought a newspaper on the way to work to check how the financial markets had done the day before or to see what the civil leaders had been up to yesterday.

Hard-copy newspapers are an anachronism, pure and simple.