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!

See also

Comments

[eyecon]

As a gay, secular progressive I resent when the Christian Right engages in this form of social or political censorship.

Today's editorial CLEARLY states the Times' position. I loathe everything that Mr. Kristol stands for. Nevertheless, I respect the Times for offering an opposing point of view.

I have no right to impose my opinions on others - particularly when it comes to whose opinions they should read or consider. That would be the ultimate hypocrisy.

We should be a nation of choices. If you don't like homosexuality - don't do it. Same for abortion. Billo? Rush? - Change the channel. If you don't like Mr. Kristol then turn the page.

[TheProf]

The New York Times no longer stands for competent journalism. How unfortunate to see the last voice of true balance and understanding give over to greed. Shame on you New York Times. We should hang our flags at half mast. Kristol? My god, have you lost your last sense of decency?

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

With Kristol getting NYT prominent columns/space, shouldn't he be paying political advertising premiums for his endless neoCon nonsense? Why does ReichWingNut Kristol get FREE space in ANY newspaper, especially NYTimes?! Why doesn't the FEC look into this??

[marcialosangeles]

Hear Hear--could not believe my eyes and ears. Just what were/are they thinking?

[HearNoWeasel]

I'll bet Fox can't wait to introduce Kristol as "contributer to the New York Times." Doesn't that just sound so fair and balanced?

[wadenelson1]

Kristol’s Iraq ruminations:

2/20/2003: "He’s [Saddam Hussein] got weapons of mass destructio­n....

... we will be respected around the world for helping the people of Iraq to be liberated.­"

04/03/2006: Iraq is at a critical turning point, ...

And victory will then be achievable.

[Taan]

Krystal, Coulter and their ilk are like court jesters of old, not to be taken seriously, they're for entertainment only. How else would you address individuals whose nonsense burbles endlessly around the clock like a broken commode? In Coulter's case, I wouldn't want to get too near the woman without a rabies shot.

[JohnJames]

I won't hold my breath for the day the Wall Street Journal hires a commentator as liberal as Kristol is conservative. Conservatives don't go in for that "let's hear all sides" game. Liberals - always the idealists and always the losers.

[skepticfromschenectady]

If the Times wanted more "balance" (a much abused word in the last seven years) why didn't they hire George Will? At least Will is thoughtful, knows history, and is respectful of opposing views. No more flaming ideologues. Times readers, do you really want to see that Kristol smirk every time you read an op-ed piece?

[tbone99]

" ... It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency."
Exactly how I felt when I heard the NYT had kept the news about wiretapping the American public silenced for over a year for "security reasons!"
They hold responsibilty for Iraq in allowing Judith Miller to promulgate lies about WMDs to their readers.
Its only natural that Wm Cristol become an official mouthpiece .The paper of record is now an official propagand rag.
NYT - may it R.I.P

[ipitombi]

Kathy,

You've got a charming husband who has a way with words. Would he mind if I modify the letter with stronger language before I forward to the ny-termites (spelling checker not working) to cancel my subscription?

[Bodhisattava]

Kristol is also credited with promoting the development of viruses that attack specific genotypes (read:Arabs) in his tract "Rebuilding America's Defenses in the PNAC document.

Just the idea that this man is promoting genocide through surreptitious means makes him fit for the insane asylum which the NYT seems to have become.

He is a mad man,plain and simple.

[wadenelson1]

A sampling of the Kristol-views that New York Times readers may now be reading on a weekly basis:

– Iran halting its nuclear weapons program is “Another feather in the cap for [the] Iraq invasion.”

– The U.S. should “put everything” behind Iraq escalation so we can bomb Iran and Syria.

– Markos Moulitsas is the “left-wing blogger who was not respectable three or four years ago.”

– “Sober, serious” people want over 100,000 troops in Iraq when Bush leaves office.

– Let’s “stretch our Army and Marines” for “another year or so” in Iraq.

– A Presidential pardon for Scooter Libby would remove the “cloud hanging over his White House and over the war.”

– College men are “very happy” that Plan B will now be sold over-the-counter because they can have “a wild night” and “the burden is off them.”

– On SCHIP veto: “I’m happy that the President’s willing to do something bad for the kids. ”

– Al Gore “Got the Nobel Peace Prize for bloviating about global warming.”

[bev]

Instead of investigating him they have hired him!

[blithespirit]

To read intelligent, indepth articles about American politics, I read...the British newspapers. I find I learn a great deal more from The Guardian, The Independent, and The Times than any U.S. paper. Case in point: the 2000 election in Florida which Bush&Co. stole - with the help of little brother Jeb and Kathleen Harris, and the Supreme Court. Funny that I read all about in The Guardian (courtesy of Greg Palast) and yet not one word written about it in any of the American papers.
It would be funny if it wasn't so sad!