My Husband's Farewell To The Times

My husband, Chris Noblet, just sent this to The New York Times. Feel free to use it as a model for your e-mail to them.

"I have read the Times for over three decades, have many times been a home subscriber, and have been a premium internet subscriber since you offered the service. Many times, I have emailed friends and associates with interesting Times articles. Many years, in many places, such as Connecticut, Manhattan and California, I subscribed to the paper edition of the Times.

As a former journalist, I admired the Times immensely. As a corporate communications professional for many years, I worked with the Times on numerous occasions, and in the last 15 years have been very disappointed to see the slippage in the quality and objectivity of your reporters.

I accepted, even occasionally admired, William Safire. I accepted David Brooks.

All that said, if you hire William Kristol, it will be the final cut. You will have betrayed everything I have ever admired in the Times. I am serious about this. I will terminate my email and any premium subscription. I will no longer purchase the Times or the Herald Tribune at newsstands. My interest in the success of your publication will cease, and I will get all my news from elsewhere. Any regrets I may have will be assuaged by my knowledge that your hiring of that arrogant, blockheaded, smirking, war-mongering scumbag proves you have finally lost your way."

I probably would have left out "scumbag." But it wouldn't have been easy!

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Comments

[Bamboo]

Kristol is not a thoughtful conservative, or even a merely partisan one. He is an ideologue who browbeats his readers with an air of moral certainty and intellectual imperiousness which doesn't let reality intrude. It's baffling that the Times would give him a platform. The only reason must be that they think he'll cause controversy and sell papers. They at least got the first part right.

[sammy333]

Better late than never.. The very idea to PAY for a pile of paper with a bunch of overt or covert ads (for products or policies, respectively) in addition to the actual voluntary consumption of this poison seems absurd to me.

[mamacat]

The MSM does not seem to be doing a very good job of investigative journalism, or even reporting what's going on in a meaningful way. Handouts from the Republican National Committee, while readily available on the internet, might appear to have more legality when printed in the New York Times.
If and when spokespersons for the people in power are allowed to wear the mantle of respectability that would normally be reserved for independent authors, then it is bad for the country.
On the other hand, if spokespersons for the rich and powerful are allowed the format of the NYT but under the byline of "Spokesperson for the RNC," then it would not be so detrimental to our democracy. It might even be amusing.

[Ihaveadream]

Thank you Kathleen. This family canceled last month. I just hope the NY Times "gets it" this time.

[RobinLandseadel]

I would have included "Neo-Nazi.­" If the shoe fits. . .

[RightVoices]

I love how her objective reporter husband started the letter with this:


"I worked with the Times on numerous occasions, and in the last 15 years have been very disappointed to see the slippage in the quality and objectivity of your reporters.­"

Midway through, showed us how objective he is:
"I accepted, even occasionally admired, William Safire. I accepted David Brooks."

How big of him! Now bring that objectivity home:
"Any regrets I may have will be assuaged by my knowledge that your hiring of that arrogant, blockheaded, smirking, war-mongering scumbag proves you have finally lost your way."

Stomp your feet a little harder! What is it that you are afraid of? A different opinion from your own? Hardly objective I would say!

[AurigaRa]

welcome to the club Mr Noblet. I cancelled my subscription well over a year ago.

Corporate is as corporate does.

[dora rice]

As far as I read several articles, Kristol was one of the originators of PNAC. The very root of evil in Iraq and the middle east.

[dora rice]

"Any regrets I may have will be assuaged by my knowledge that your hiring of that arrogant, blockheaded, smirking, war-mongering scumbag proves you have finally lost your way."

thank you. I couldn't have said it better. It's scary and it's sad, and it has nothing to do with journalism. Good luck Times. I reckon you need it. You have crossed the line of decency.

[jukesgrrl]

My letter to the Times was inspired not by the Kristol hiring alone, but by that ABSURD editorial. Not that I expect them to care what I think:

"I am completely unable to comprehend the editorial policy of a newspaper that would lament the current state of political affairs in the United States of America in the same week the hiring of William Kristol as a columnist is revealed.

If you need me, a middle-aged voter living in a currently red state, to explain to you that you are A MAJOR PART OF THE PROBLEM, then something is seriously amiss in how journalism is practiced in our nation today. Wasn't it bad enough that your reporter Judy Miller played a role in one of the most disgraceful scandals of the Bush administration? Wasn't it bad enough that it was revealed you have repeatedly withheld stories that would have helped Americans, not to mention members of Congress, make better choices about our foreign policy if the truth had been known?

Oh, yeah, it's all the fault of the READERS of the Times. No foul by the people who decide what is published on the front and editorial pages of your formerly esteemed newspaper. William Kristol is a war criminal and anyone who gives him the opportunity to continue spreading the horrific lies that financially benefit his friends while leading to the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis and Americans is complicit in his activities­."

[bannelee]

i put up with Kristol at Newsweek,but Karl Rove made me quit them.I win't read the Times anymore if Kristol's there.The idea that they'd pay money to that scumbag!!

[shag11]

Ditto. This is a travesty. Kristol suggested that people who said there'd be problems with the population in Iraq after invasion were dealing in "pop psychology­." He's been wrong about everything.

[Semper]

The forth estate is revealing itself. Trash journalism

[anfractuous]

If Kristol said "Wipe your ass", I'd carefully consider it. This is someone who has never been confronted by a personal tragedy: Someone who thinks life is a Risk game they played in college, and cannot discern the difference. Adulation by his social climbing friends maintains him in his intellectual nirvana, while the real world crumbles at his feet.

[memi69]

Hey, I stopped reading the NYT in any form back in July. Why? I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. When they posted their preview, that was it for me.

Now, the only time I read it is through the non-traditional outlets that think it's worth putting the NYT links on their sites, like Huff Po.