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

[H8FascistCons]

The utter lack of empathy or remorse for the people of Iraq who have suffered so immensely by the policies espoused by Kristol and his fellow republican Fascists in this country is simply chilling!!!

[Oldtimer]

It's time for Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd, and
Paul Krugman to resifn ion protest and go to the
New York Observer. That will put the nail in the
Sulzberger coffin.

[pgate127]

I feel the same way about this issue as I did about Newsweek's decision to bring Karl Rove onboard. These people have had every opportunity in the world to spray their venom across our country. They have nothing productive whatsoever to add to the general conversation. I really do not believe that they should be availed of yet another outlet. Enough.

And yes, I did cancel my subscription to Newsweek

[Simonne]

I'm not a conservative like Bill Kristol but I do like him & like to listen to his views. He is not an ultra conservative either. NYT should have someone with opposite views & that's why I watch Foxnews.

[lilliasea]

The bastions of Conservative propoganda have lost credibility even among the 5 sec sound byte crowd (ergo the rise of the Net for credible news). Scaife is losing his inheritance vis a vie divorce proceedings that would make a liberal blush (check out the Pittsburgh Post Gazette). Ah, my sorrow that The Tribune Review will go the way of the dinosaur. So where oh where would poor Mr. Kristol run? the NYT???!! Say it ain't so.

[wagadog]

Well, we don't know why the NYT hired Kristol (I can't bring myself to call it "The Times" -- "The Times" is "The London Times" or "The Sunday Times").

We also don't know why the NYT offered Ray Bonner the editorship of the home section after being a highly effective foreign correspondent for many years -- oh, maybe it had something to do with his insistent reporting on things like the massacre at El Mozotote.

And any of us with a pulse during those years could not have missed their consistent identification socmocista thugs-armed-by-the-US as "The Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters Known As The Contras" -- even when the phrase didn't make any sense in the sentence, or would make it unbelievably awkward. Even in those years, some right-wing editor appears to have had his hand on the "global search and replace" button. We don't know why he would have used it. It may have had something to do with "access" and those lunch dates Sultzberger was keeping with Ronald Reagan -- but, in fact, we don't know.

We also don't know why it's taken an intelligent couple like Chris Noblet and Kathleen Reardon so long to figure out that the NYT is a right-wing rag that occasionally demonstrates some journalistic balance and integrity.

[Greensleeves]

In the present Sulzberger Publisher the NYT has their own version of "Little George" Bush.The Times slants or ignores stories critical of their croniesor their corporate interest.Take what you need and forget the rest.

[pdrew]

What a way to start a new year.

I wouldn't line a bird cage with that rag, for fear that the bird might have to look at that neo-fascist, I couldn't be any more wrong about every thing that has transpired in the last 6 years.
but he is who the times hires?
Please, don't insult me.

[opines]

Why the surprise. William Safire, Nixon's speechwriter, and Mossad assets Abe Rosenthal, Judith Miller, Thomas Friedman.

Nothing new here.

[Lemeritus]

I would refer you all to Rog49Thomas' good thoughts deeper in these comments about the media in a robust democracy (which is not to say that our "democracy" at this nadir in our history is either robust or particularly democratic).

Mr. Kristol is not only a spokesman but an architect of the debacle in which we find ourselves. It goes without saying that he should be allowed his say -- sadly on the pages of the NYT. The Washington Post, after all, has Robert Novak and Charles Krauthammer (blessedly providing readers with the satisfying facility of commenting immediately and therapeutically online). It is up to each of us to recognize Kristol for what he is and to weigh his words accordingly.

As a note, it seems many of us believe the right's indictment of the NYT as a prime example of liberal media. I think we need to remind ourselves of Judith Miller and the fact that the Times withheld the NSA eavesdropping story until after the 04 elections. The NYT is not the same paper that published the Pentagon Papers, just as the Washington Post is not the same paper that nurtured young Woodward and Bernstein. Would that they were!

[msmaggie]

The nerve of the Times. Hiring writers who don't agree with me on everything.

Media that only reflects my world view--well the right does it very well with Rush Limbaugh etc. Why not the left? Other than that idea of the value of an open exchange of ideas. How old fashioned is that, huh.

What a crock.

[BobEvansZombie]

Why should someone who you feel is in part responsible for the meaningless deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis be given a public platform?

It's not about a battle of ideas, it's about keeping the dangerous rantings of a blood-thirsty, self-righteous madman from being given credence.

[rroy]

The few times I have given more than a passing glance to this guy,Kristol,I shook my head in disbelief,and hit the "Change" button on my remote,having the gut reaction that anybody who gives any credence at all to someone like this,either loves having his intellegence insulted or has none at all.
This dope is little more than the male counterpart of Ann Coulter!Someone I ignore or scorn with equal vigor.
Sure,as a free country,the "Free Press"has a right to feature any journalist or pundit it choses,but even a free press cannot escape the conclusion that using a crackpot like this as a feature contributor,is,to no small extent,an endorsement of his opinions.

[pizzmoe]

Stick a fork in the NYT. They're done.

[MitchW]

The views posted on Huffpo (right and left) probably has 6x the exposure of any Times article. The old media is dead anyway, save a tree and do a blog!