By Florida Bill
The New York Times has its fans and its critics for sure, but rarely do citizens get an unobstructed view into that famous newsroom.
The glimpse has been provided by opinion writer and progressive warrior Bari Weiss in a scathing letter of resignation from the paper in which she outlined the Times' disdain for all opinions which run counter to positions taken by the paper.
It was not a pretty picture of the old Gray Lady which Bari painted. Forget the heralded adage of "all the news that is fit to print." Nowadays, only approved columns and news stories okayed by the house are being fed to its loyal and sundry readers, and stories espousing culture and policies contrary to the Times menu are generally discarded.
Put another way--Its the "Times way, or the Highway."
The caviar-eating progressive crowd, the Hollywood elites and the rich pipe- smokers whose homes are protected by tall fences, are incredibly loyal to the Times and care only that the paper is miles to the left and despises President Trump. Accuracy and truth are irrelevant.
Bari Weiss was 36, had a bachelor's degree from Columbia University, and had been a Times culture warrior and opinion writer since 2017. She was hired by the Times following four years with the Wall Street Journal which she ended because of her annoyance that the paper was too easy on President Trump. The Times welcomed her with open arms.
As a working journalist and a woman of opinions, Ms.Weiss has been a guest on two occasions on "Real Time" with Bill Maher, and on "The View" with Joy Behar; and had been profiled in Vanity Fair. Smart, glib and a culture warrior who is a tough critic of President Trump, Bari has spoken out forcefully on the "MeToo" movement, and of her own bisexuality. In her three years at the powerful New York Times, Weiss became well known and highly regarded for her writings about current culture, which included her defense of Israel and her sympathies for the plight of Jews, of which she is one. She is the author of the book, "How to fight Anti-Semitism," which was well received, but subjected her to sniping from colleagues, who felt she had become obsessive with the subject.
Her 1,500 word letter of resignation was given to Publisher A.G. Sulzberger, and she opened her exiting essay with a chummy, "Dear A.G." Sulzberger, 39, took over as editor and publisher on January 1, 2018, when his father, Arthur O. Sulzberger who had been publisher moved on to the role of Chairman of the New York Times Company.
Because of her Jewish columns and her book, some colleagues called her a "Nazi" and a "racist." Her milieu, she wrote, had become a "hostile work environment" and she asked "A.G.," "how could you allow this kind of behavior to go on inside your company in full view of the paper's entire staff....?" She also castigated the paper for living in a "distant galaxy"and writing that "the worst caste systems in human history include the United States and Nazi Germany."
As to the Times abandonment of journalistic ethics, Weiss wrote that stories are "chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions." Violations of this code can cost jobs, she said.
Ms. Weiss noted that several weeks ago, the opinion pages carried an OpEd from U.S. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Republican, which ran counter to the Times narrative. It endorsed the use of federal troops to bring peace and civility to the streets of cities which had descended into lawlessness. Cotton's comments were worthy of debate, she said.
In the fallout from that miscue, with hundreds of staffers complaining, and in just two days after the Cotton piece ran, Opinion Page editor James Bennet who had approved the piece for his section, was fired, and Bennet's deputy was demoted to a desk in the city room. Cotton's piece did not belong in the Times, asserted Sulzberger who told the staff that Bennet had apologized and resigned.
Surprisingly, Ms. Weiss avoided commenting on the Times receipt of a Pulitzer for its many stories on Donald Trump's "collusion" with Russia, as the subject was typical of the Times' disregard for honesty in its reporting.
The newspaper had accepted the award for some 20 fabricated stories alleging Trump "collusion" and possible sedition with Russia despite the fact that President Trump was cleared of all wrongdoing following a $33 million investigation into the charges by a special prosecutor. The investigation was acknowledged under oath to have been a "hoax" by the acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who had commissioned the investigation.
For someone like Weiss to leave what was once considered a plum job in journalism-- at a time when any such jobs are few and far between and layoffs are commonplace--is proof of her disgust at what the creme de la creme of American newspapers has become.
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As a working journalist and a woman of opinions, Ms.Weiss has been a guest on two occasions on "Real Time" with Bill Maher, and on "The View" with Joy Behar; and had been profiled in Vanity Fair. Smart, glib and a culture warrior who is a tough critic of President Trump, Bari has spoken out forcefully on the "MeToo" movement, and of her own bisexuality. In her three years at the powerful New York Times, Weiss became well known and highly regarded for her writings about current culture, which included her defense of Israel and her sympathies for the plight of Jews, of which she is one. She is the author of the book, "How to fight Anti-Semitism," which was well received, but subjected her to sniping from colleagues, who felt she had become obsessive with the subject.
Her 1,500 word letter of resignation was given to Publisher A.G. Sulzberger, and she opened her exiting essay with a chummy, "Dear A.G." Sulzberger, 39, took over as editor and publisher on January 1, 2018, when his father, Arthur O. Sulzberger who had been publisher moved on to the role of Chairman of the New York Times Company.
Because of her Jewish columns and her book, some colleagues called her a "Nazi" and a "racist." Her milieu, she wrote, had become a "hostile work environment" and she asked "A.G.," "how could you allow this kind of behavior to go on inside your company in full view of the paper's entire staff....?" She also castigated the paper for living in a "distant galaxy"and writing that "the worst caste systems in human history include the United States and Nazi Germany."
As to the Times abandonment of journalistic ethics, Weiss wrote that stories are "chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions." Violations of this code can cost jobs, she said.
Ms. Weiss noted that several weeks ago, the opinion pages carried an OpEd from U.S. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Republican, which ran counter to the Times narrative. It endorsed the use of federal troops to bring peace and civility to the streets of cities which had descended into lawlessness. Cotton's comments were worthy of debate, she said.
In the fallout from that miscue, with hundreds of staffers complaining, and in just two days after the Cotton piece ran, Opinion Page editor James Bennet who had approved the piece for his section, was fired, and Bennet's deputy was demoted to a desk in the city room. Cotton's piece did not belong in the Times, asserted Sulzberger who told the staff that Bennet had apologized and resigned.
Surprisingly, Ms. Weiss avoided commenting on the Times receipt of a Pulitzer for its many stories on Donald Trump's "collusion" with Russia, as the subject was typical of the Times' disregard for honesty in its reporting.
The newspaper had accepted the award for some 20 fabricated stories alleging Trump "collusion" and possible sedition with Russia despite the fact that President Trump was cleared of all wrongdoing following a $33 million investigation into the charges by a special prosecutor. The investigation was acknowledged under oath to have been a "hoax" by the acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who had commissioned the investigation.
For someone like Weiss to leave what was once considered a plum job in journalism-- at a time when any such jobs are few and far between and layoffs are commonplace--is proof of her disgust at what the creme de la creme of American newspapers has become.
xxx
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