Why Do People Love to Hate The New York Times?
Times-bashing isn’t just for conservatives anymore. As countless self-appointed critics whack away at the Gray Lady, our correspondent searches for the cause fueling the rebellion.
Because they pay Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, Tom Friedman and Bill Kristol. See also, Bob Somerby’s Incomparable Archives.
This has been today’s edition of SATSQ.
*** Update ***
Forgot Bill Kristol, so I added him. I think I was mentally blocking him.
Nate
It’s not too late for you to add Bill Kristol!
liberal
Much worse than those three is Judith Miller, aka “I was proved f*cking right.”
Though she doesn’t work for the Times anymore.
David Hunt
I’ve seen “SATSQ” used several times reading this blog and people have even asked what it means in comments, but I’ve never seen an answer to that question. So, since this comment will be first or close to it: WTF does SATSQ mean?
Please.
conumbdrum
For shame, John – you forgot Bloody Bill Kristol.
dbrown
So the the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the puppet king can arrest and indefinitely detain even U.S. citizens (arrested on U.S. soil) without charging them with any crime — a decision which the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review. (Taken from Salon.)
People, the monkey boy has total power – talk about fun. With Cheney’s bloodly hand up his ass, these deep thinkers have destoried our constitution and did away with Habeas Corpus.
Adam
“Simple Answers to Simple/Stupid Questions.” See Black, Duncan.
Also, John, you might add, see Brad Delong, search term “Why oh why can’t we….”
SpaceCat
A Taibbi classic for all you fellow Friedman haters out there:
http://www.nypress.com/18/16/news&columns/taibbi.cfm
And oh yeah – fuck Judy Miller!!
Dennis - SGMM
Simple Answers To Simple Questions. It’s become part of the vocabulary of the place.
David Hunt
Thanx, Adam
David Hunt
Belated thanx to Dennis as well.
JL
The Onion is becoming my online source for news.
Snark Based Reality
Just timeshift the archives by about 3 or 4 years and it’s pretty accurate.
Robert Johnston
Judith Miller is an important point to add, because it’s not just the opinion columnists of the Times that even non-conservatives complain about these days. The Times is no Washington Post when it comes to the complete devolution of the news pages, but neither is it what it once was. We need only look to today’s nonsense to see the latest egregious example.
BombIranForChrist
Absolutely right.
The blogosphere’s greatest gift to democracy has been to show Americans like myself that most if not all of the top tier bloggers write better commentary than all of those clowns combined.
Amazingly, I think Dowd’s tenure at the times is even more baffling than Kristol’s. What is she exactly? A satirist? A gossip columnist? My shampoo bottle is funnier than her.
leo
Yeah, but when you have a look at how more awful the competition is, you might get your knickers less twisted.
cyntax
Ugh–Bill Kristol.
He’s the Douglas Feith of the NYT.
Dreggas
You forgot to add “This has been another edition of SATSQ”.
James Gary
I quit subscribing during the Howell Raines era (late 1990s), when the writing took on a dumbed-down tone-deafness and the overall tone of the paper started to resemble People magazine. I can live with the lame right-wing op-ed page (someone recently reminded me that William Safire and A.M. Rosenthal were not much better than the current crop)–it’s the general hackiness of the rest of the paper that turned me off.
It’s a shame, really, because occasionally I’ll read an NYT that someone’s left on the subway and be reminded that there are some good writers there still–the Science and International sections remain pretty decent. But they’re not compelling enough for me to spend money subscribing again.
Random Asshole
Hmm. I actually like Friedman sometimes. Sometimes.
tom.a
Dowd in today’s op-ed: Bring it on, Ozone Democrats! Because if Obama gets elected and there is nothing funny about him, it won’t be the economy that’s depressed. It will be the rest of us
Yes, because a sense of humor is exactly what I want in a President, even better, a sense of humor and someone I can invite to my BBQ and chat with like he’s my dim-witted Uncle. If his humor is along the lines of “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?” or “Have you heard the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?” or wishing cancer upon an entire nation then all the better, THAT’s who I want for President.
Jay B.
Dear Vanity Fair,
Matt Pressman?
As countless self-appointed critics whack away at the Gray Lady, our correspondent searches for the cause fueling the rebellion.
Look, just because his name is “Pressman” doesn’t mean he has what it takes to be a media critic. I should know, I’m the pitchman for Cialis.
Signed,
Von Wood
srv
Uh, John, you missed Ben Stein.
Really, it’s a joke now, and the LA Times is running a close second.
J. A. Baker
That would make him “The Stupidest F**king Guy at The Paper of Record™” to paraphrase Gen. Tommy Franks.
HumboldtBlue
So Pressman goes to Jonah Goldberg for an interview about the NYT. Pressman is now a fumbledick himself. Jonah Goldberg, who, next to Feith, is the stupidest fucking guy on eart is a major source in a story about a leading daily newspaper? What’s next, Malkin gets interviewed about health care communism? I used to read blogs to learn, now I realize they just make more stupid than I was when I woke up this morning.
srv
A stopped clock is right once every six months.
JL
Yes, because a sense of humor is exactly what I want in a President, even better, a sense of humor and someone I can invite to my BBQ and chat with like he’s my dim-witted Uncle. If his humor is along the lines of “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?” or “Have you heard the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?” or wishing cancer upon an entire nation then all the better, THAT’s who I want for President.
mapaghimagsik
I do subscribe to a major newspaper and spend most of my time eyerolling at it or reading comics.
cyntax
Ding-ding-ding.
You are correct, Sir!
Robert Johnston
Yeah, but stupidest guy leaves Dowd out of the running. And boy can she give Kristol a run for his money for the title of Stupidest F**king Person at The Paper of Record™. I shudder to imagine what their children would be like.
Paul L.
Lets not forget their biased p*ss poor coverage of my favorite subject.
rawshark
After eight years of Bush and previous years of any other republican administration trashing the shit out of the press you have to ask this question?
Because a free and open press won’t do what it’s told? They won’t report what’s requested?
They’re reality based?
SATSQ indeed. Heh.
Zifnab
Um… what? I don’t know if you’ve read the NYT recently, but it has been bending over backwards to lick codpiece. The editorial section is riff with wingnuts. The owners of the company are more than willing to squelch a story because it has “national security” implications, because it fails to measure up to fair and balanced journalism, or because it simply offends too many rednecks.
I mean, it’s no Washington Times, but that’s hardly saying much.
cyntax
Good points all and I can think of no way to refute them.
Still, just the sight of Kristol’s stupidly self-satisified smile (Jon-please stop having him on the Daily Show) incites me to tv-screen destroying action, while Dowd garners a just slightly less visceral reaction. But that’s purely subjective, so your mileage may vary.
TenguPhule
Because that really is all the resident troll cares about.
dbt
Of course, Bill Keller was a charter member of the “Oh look at me I’m such a conflicted hawk” club, as well as a charter member of the Judith Miller fan club. And he still runs the place.
And they still haven’t, as far as I know, apologized for Whitewater.
rasta
They(NYT) knew about wire tapping without warrants but refused to publish until after the 04 election (stolen in Ohio).
Jody
Best SATSQ ever.
Robert Johnston
I can’t disagree with your assessment at all. I’d just say that, for me at least, the reason the Kristol produces a more visceral reaction than Dowd is because there are actually people who take him seriously and consider him a heavyweight of conservative thought, whereas almost no one considers Dowd to be much more than a third rate gossip columnist. I really think they’re about equivalently stupid, but the gap between actual stupidity and average perceived stupidity is much bigger in Kristol’s case than in Dowd’s, so Kristol is a much more pressing and depressing reminder of the sad intellectual state of the mainstream political commentariat.
rawshark
Which is what they will all eventually do. They were attacked for being ‘liberal’ because they reported things righties didn’t want to hear. Now you’re attacking them because of what they’ve become in response to right wing attacks. Once both sides hate them they’re done. Just as planned. Thanks to many years of work by the right and new efforts by the left one can’t even bring information learned from reading the New York Times to an argument.
Heh. Indeed.
StonyPillow
The “reporters” cheerleading Administration talking points are far more insidious than opinion columnists. Don’t forget Ms. Miller’s protege, Michael Gordon.
Xenos
Did they ever apologize to Wen Ho Lee? They settled, along with the other captive papers, for over a million dollars, in order to preserve their government access, but they never admitted wrongdoing.
Another sin — keeping Bob Herbert on the page. The only orthodox democrat, and he is way dull.
Gay Veteran
StonyPillow Says: The “reporters” cheerleading Administration talking points are far more insidious than opinion columnists. Don’t forget Ms. Miller’s protege, Michael Gordon
bingo! Gordon is the resident N.Y. Times “reporter” pushing for war with Iran
peter
SpaceCat
I’d never read that before. EPIC WIN.
Thank you!
Kenneth Fair
What I love is that Pressman interviews *Jonah Goldberg* of all people, to find out why liberals criticize the New York Times.
Gee, Matt, if you want to find out why liberals don’t think much of the Times, why don’t you, say, ask one? Or maybe just leaf through Bob Somerby’s archives? Or look at Media Matters’ New York Times archives?