Comments on: More fatuousness from the Times http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/04/21/more_fatuousness_from_the_time/ Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:59:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: heather http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/04/21/more_fatuousness_from_the_time/#comment-1396 heather Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:02:20 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/04/21/more-fatuousness-from-the-times/#comment-1396 The Times' power really boils down to making the decision - for the rest of the news media - as to what is important news today. Now, I would say that the DrudgeReport with its 600 MILLION hits per month, is performing that function in 2008. The Times’ power really boils down to making the decision – for the rest of the news media – as to what is important news today.

Now, I would say that the DrudgeReport with its 600 MILLION hits per month, is performing that function in 2008.

]]> By: John N. Frary http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/04/21/more_fatuousness_from_the_time/#comment-1395 John N. Frary Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:02:33 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/04/21/more-fatuousness-from-the-times/#comment-1395 Orchestrate?..they must have used the verb "orchestrate." It's standard usage. Orchestrate?..they must have used the verb “orchestrate.” It’s standard usage.

]]> By: Alex Reed http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/04/21/more_fatuousness_from_the_time/#comment-1394 Alex Reed Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:18:08 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/04/21/more-fatuousness-from-the-times/#comment-1394 It is a mournful irony that the once great gray dame is performing what is now an almost daily auto-da-fé, all the while thinking the cries and the flames of the macabre coda inspire awe on all sides at such transcendent, shining glory. I saw somewhere in my travels this morning a headline bringing the joyful news that Mayor Bloomberg's pals are encouraging him to buy the NYT. Ha! A sort of booby prize in lieu of his presidential run? What kind of friends are these?! Surely, the Mayor deserves better. Pinch and Bloomy -- a match definitely NOT put together by the Spirit in the Sky! Though the vision of the Mayor trying to explain the basics of market economics to Pinch in the Comintern Board Room at The Times would be priceless. Bright, Timesless days have been my joy since a distant date back somewhere in the early 1980's. Word does filter back to me from the outer darkness of the occasional enormity from its dingy pages; but such word is mercifully faint and ephemeral. My personal allergic reaction aside, and despite all the unintentional hilarity being served up by The Times these days, its demise would be an ill omen for our democracy. We need to have lots of different view points shared in a forthright manner. What I would wish for the Times, instead of a quick trip down the chute, would be a return of its integrity of yore. And here I don't mean that they must be neutral, or neutered, or even necessarily have to agree with my august opinions. The Times needs to leave off incessantly trying to live up to the t-shirt parody of its motto: "All the news that fits our agenda." Enough with remaking reality to fit the party-line script. All that is required is that The Times show respect and care with the truth and the facts of a story. They need to show us that they are again trustworthy, and that honesty is the rule of the house in their news reporting. It's that simple. No more fiction writing in the news pages. Keep opinion where it belongs, on the Editorial pages, where Pinch & Co. should be free to tout their socialist valhalla to their hearts' content. And we should be equally free to enjoy a good laugh with our morning tea. It's called a free country. It is a mournful irony that the once great gray dame is performing what is now an almost daily auto-da-fé, all the while thinking the cries and the flames of the macabre coda inspire awe on all sides at such transcendent, shining glory.

I saw somewhere in my travels this morning a headline bringing the joyful news that Mayor Bloomberg’s pals are encouraging him to buy the NYT. Ha! A sort of booby prize in lieu of his presidential run? What kind of friends are these?! Surely, the Mayor deserves better. Pinch and Bloomy — a match definitely NOT put together by the Spirit in the Sky! Though the vision of the Mayor trying to explain the basics of market economics to Pinch in the Comintern Board Room at The Times would be priceless.

Bright, Timesless days have been my joy since a distant date back somewhere in the early 1980′s. Word does filter back to me from the outer darkness of the occasional enormity from its dingy pages; but such word is mercifully faint and ephemeral. My personal allergic reaction aside, and despite all the unintentional hilarity being served up by The Times these days, its demise would be an ill omen for our democracy. We need to have lots of different view points shared in a forthright manner.

What I would wish for the Times, instead of a quick trip down the chute, would be a return of its integrity of yore. And here I don’t mean that they must be neutral, or neutered, or even necessarily have to agree with my august opinions. The Times needs to leave off incessantly trying to live up to the t-shirt parody of its motto: “All the news that fits our agenda.” Enough with remaking reality to fit the party-line script. All that is required is that The Times show respect and care with the truth and the facts of a story. They need to show us that they are again trustworthy, and that honesty is the rule of the house in their news reporting. It’s that simple. No more fiction writing in the news pages. Keep opinion where it belongs, on the Editorial pages, where Pinch & Co. should be free to tout their socialist valhalla to their hearts’ content. And we should be equally free to enjoy a good laugh with our morning tea. It’s called a free country.

]]> By: Paul http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/04/21/more_fatuousness_from_the_time/#comment-1393 Paul Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:49:21 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/04/21/more-fatuousness-from-the-times/#comment-1393 There was a period -- way back in the time of my nascency -- when one could point to clear extremes of absurdity in "examination" of the journalistic kind: the old RAMPARTS or THE NATION (say) in the act of apostrophizing a glorious student "strike," that mirrored by the old AMERICAN SPECTATOR featuring Tom Bethel on Einstein as scientific fraud, or on the Marxist-populist conspiracy of "Darwinism." In the last few years, the curdlingly pompous NYTimes has bested even the worst of those. Nevertheless, my dear and attentive neighbors (we live in a retirement community) let hardly a week go by without depositing one or another NYTimes cutting in my mail-cubby. They think they have at last found the truth on some issue on which I have been confusing them, and are informing me thereof. I am considering responding to such kindness with clippings from the local print version of current statements from China's Shinhua News Agency -- in Chinese, of course. There was a period — way back in the time of my nascency — when one could point to clear extremes of absurdity in “examination” of the journalistic kind: the old RAMPARTS or THE NATION (say) in the act of apostrophizing a glorious student “strike,” that mirrored by the old AMERICAN SPECTATOR featuring Tom Bethel on Einstein as scientific fraud, or on the Marxist-populist conspiracy of “Darwinism.”

In the last few years, the curdlingly pompous NYTimes has bested even the worst of those. Nevertheless, my dear and attentive neighbors (we live in a retirement community) let hardly a week go by without depositing one or another NYTimes cutting in my mail-cubby. They think they have at last found the truth on some issue on which I have been confusing them, and are informing me thereof.

I am considering responding to such kindness with clippings from the local print version of current statements from China’s Shinhua News Agency — in Chinese, of course.

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