The NYT
The NYT has gone so far downhill I don't even know where to start. My step-Dad, a born-and-raised New Yorker who long loved the NYT, is much more the expert on this than me, but even in my time I have seen such a degradation of that paper it is truly saddening.
The NYT took an open decision to allow editorializing into its articles in order to try and increase circulation, in the face of popular and opinionated news and website which now dominate individual's consumption of information.
What this has meant is that almost every social and political article in the paper is written with a massive spin and tilt. And not the gyroscope kind of spin and tilt, more like the tilt-a-whirl of misrepresentation.
It has become more or less the voice of the administration and its style of policies and politics: openness means attacking your enemies, truth means spewing hate and spinning reality, greatest good means people are too stupid to take care of themselves, and the very concept of objective truth and good is mocked.
The interesting thing is that many post-modern theorists spend thousands of barely-coherent pages expounding on just this phenomenon. The thing is, they always though that companies and the government would team up in the name of consumption and capitalism. Instead, it is that a certain agenda of power, influence, laziness, moral certainty and hatred has lead to an intellectual collusion between the media and the government. Companies which push consumption and advertising don't really have any skin in this game (sorry po-mo hipsters, you can put your iPad back in your messenger bag at this point. Go have an organic coffee - that usually cheers you up).
Which brings me to my final point. What the NYT wields, what makes it so popular to those who accept that view of the world, what makes it so dangerous, and ultimately what makes it so completely worthless once you know what you are looking at: guilt. It's really all they have left to sell - at least on the politics and social side of things - I still quite like it for some of the other articles. But I always find myself clicking across to something that I am interested in on politics or related matters, and then I always end up disgusted and frustrated.
Here's to hoping the NYT again reports the news in a clear and intelligent way someday. Right now the structure is crumbling down.
The NYT took an open decision to allow editorializing into its articles in order to try and increase circulation, in the face of popular and opinionated news and website which now dominate individual's consumption of information.
What this has meant is that almost every social and political article in the paper is written with a massive spin and tilt. And not the gyroscope kind of spin and tilt, more like the tilt-a-whirl of misrepresentation.
It has become more or less the voice of the administration and its style of policies and politics: openness means attacking your enemies, truth means spewing hate and spinning reality, greatest good means people are too stupid to take care of themselves, and the very concept of objective truth and good is mocked.
The interesting thing is that many post-modern theorists spend thousands of barely-coherent pages expounding on just this phenomenon. The thing is, they always though that companies and the government would team up in the name of consumption and capitalism. Instead, it is that a certain agenda of power, influence, laziness, moral certainty and hatred has lead to an intellectual collusion between the media and the government. Companies which push consumption and advertising don't really have any skin in this game (sorry po-mo hipsters, you can put your iPad back in your messenger bag at this point. Go have an organic coffee - that usually cheers you up).
Which brings me to my final point. What the NYT wields, what makes it so popular to those who accept that view of the world, what makes it so dangerous, and ultimately what makes it so completely worthless once you know what you are looking at: guilt. It's really all they have left to sell - at least on the politics and social side of things - I still quite like it for some of the other articles. But I always find myself clicking across to something that I am interested in on politics or related matters, and then I always end up disgusted and frustrated.
Here's to hoping the NYT again reports the news in a clear and intelligent way someday. Right now the structure is crumbling down.
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