Bravo! Well written. You voiced my alarm at the bad judgment at the NYT since that editorial asking Biden to leave the race and then embarking on a frenzy of coverage about Biden’s aging and fall out all the while not recognizing they are very much a driver of this game. Yes it is a distraction from what is truly important.
I am sympathetic to people who have cancelled their New York Times subscription. I only recently returned to that paper after moving over to the Washington Post back in 2016 because I thought its election coverage was stronger. But now that Jeff Bezos seems to want to turn the Post into a British tabloid I am looking at the Times more favorably.
To me it all comes down to one’s unit of analysis. I can get as frustrated as anyone else about specific content in the Times. However, I also try to think “institutionally.” The U.S. needs a national newspaper. At this point the Times is the only paper that comes anywhere close to being one. Indeed, it appears to be one of the few American newspapers that is growing at a time when much of the rest of the industry has fallen into in a downward spiral.
Some of my liberal and progressive colleagues like to say that they get all the news they need from smaller-scale media outlets such as blogs. What they don’t tend to acknowledge is that much of the content those media outlets draw upon originally came from a mainstream news source such as the Times.
For all of that paper’s flaws, the Times still strikes me as operating at a higher level of journalistic sophistication than the likes of USA Today, let alone the cable networks. Perhaps even more importantly, the sheer volume of the Times’ boots-on-the-ground coverage is unmatched by any other American media outlet aside from a wire service such as the Associated Press.
I suppose one could just read the AP wire, but would one’s frustration with its content be any lower than with the Times? Not in my experience, but perhaps your mileage may vary.
I spent much of my career in public administration but started out as a journalist. That may help explain why I think it is important to use my consumer buying power to invest in journalistic capacity. Democracy requires a strong press. At this point I don’t see another viable alternative to the Times here in the United States.
Bravo! Well written. You voiced my alarm at the bad judgment at the NYT since that editorial asking Biden to leave the race and then embarking on a frenzy of coverage about Biden’s aging and fall out all the while not recognizing they are very much a driver of this game. Yes it is a distraction from what is truly important.
I am sympathetic to people who have cancelled their New York Times subscription. I only recently returned to that paper after moving over to the Washington Post back in 2016 because I thought its election coverage was stronger. But now that Jeff Bezos seems to want to turn the Post into a British tabloid I am looking at the Times more favorably.
To me it all comes down to one’s unit of analysis. I can get as frustrated as anyone else about specific content in the Times. However, I also try to think “institutionally.” The U.S. needs a national newspaper. At this point the Times is the only paper that comes anywhere close to being one. Indeed, it appears to be one of the few American newspapers that is growing at a time when much of the rest of the industry has fallen into in a downward spiral.
Some of my liberal and progressive colleagues like to say that they get all the news they need from smaller-scale media outlets such as blogs. What they don’t tend to acknowledge is that much of the content those media outlets draw upon originally came from a mainstream news source such as the Times.
For all of that paper’s flaws, the Times still strikes me as operating at a higher level of journalistic sophistication than the likes of USA Today, let alone the cable networks. Perhaps even more importantly, the sheer volume of the Times’ boots-on-the-ground coverage is unmatched by any other American media outlet aside from a wire service such as the Associated Press.
I suppose one could just read the AP wire, but would one’s frustration with its content be any lower than with the Times? Not in my experience, but perhaps your mileage may vary.
I spent much of my career in public administration but started out as a journalist. That may help explain why I think it is important to use my consumer buying power to invest in journalistic capacity. Democracy requires a strong press. At this point I don’t see another viable alternative to the Times here in the United States.