March 30, 2011
Several items on the web this week illustrated the condition of the news media. The last contained a comment with broader application.
1. One of the most popular online news sites, The Huffington Post, has been acquired by AOL, which may not be good news. I respect Arianna Huffington, and have read two of her books, but The Huffington Post already had drifted downhill. In addition to running, typically in the right-hand column, various junk items (celebrity scandals, oddities, anything to do with sex, etc.), the writing frequently has been cute, i.e., barely literate. Headlines often use the word “fail,” apparently meaning “failure.” Monday’s example: “The funniest Fox News fails.” * (One of the examples was a Fox caption, under a shot of a female reporter: “Awaiting President Obama’s Arrival in Me,” with the comment, “adding ‘ain’ is just too much work.” Adding “ure” apparently is as well.
On Tuesday there was a link on the main page, “Death of the New York Times Book Review Good for Books?” Clicking on it led to a page on which the caption was “Death of the New York Times Book Review?” That changed the question, but both implied that the Review was about to be, or might be, dropped, as did the title of the article, “The Death of the New York Times Book Review: And Why That Is a Very Good Thing for Books.” The matter was not exactly clarified by the article’s opening statement: “This week, the New York Times goes behind a paywall. Good riddance. The section that will least missed is the book review....” Eventually it dawned on me that this referred to the Times’ decision to sell subscriptions to its web edition and limit free access, which doesn’t quite equate to the demise of the Review. (The “Good Thing for Books?” part of the caption referred to the author’s opinion that the Review is a wretched publication with no taste).
* Postscript 4/26/11. The Huffington Post ran a feature today on grammatical errors. In itself that’s a little ironic, but it added the perfect touch by asking us, as to each example, to "rate this grammar fail."
2. Newspapers and other publications have had a dilemma ever since the internet became a major form of communication. If all of the content is available on line, will people cease buying the paper? If there is a charge for online access, will viewers simply go elsewhere? A common solution is to make some content available on line free of charge but require a subscription for the rest. This can be done by designating which articles or features are free and which not, or by allowing a certain number of free readings, but charging for complete access.
The New York Times has opted for the latter model, requiring a subscription for full access, but allowing everyone twenty free “article views” per month. (The definition of that term is complex, to say the least). The new system may have begun operation, although the references to it are remarkably opaque. On Tuesday’s web page, there was this announcement: “The Times’s plan for digital subscriptions to NYTimes.com and mobile apps began Monday.” Does that mean it went into effect Monday? We were referred to a statement by the publisher, which informed us: “On Monday, The New York Times took a major step forward as we introduced digital subscriptions in the United States and the rest of the world.” Does that mean that the limit of twenty began Monday? If so, do I get twenty through Thursday, or does my first limit include April? Are we dealing with calendar months or does each period begin on the twenty-eighth? How does the Times keep track? Does this mean more cookies? One would think that the Times could write a clear description.
For me, at least, this timing is ironic: with the departure of Frank Rich and now of Bob Herbert from the op-ed pages, and the announcement that the Week in Review section will be “reinvented” (an ominous sign), twenty per month probably will be sufficient for my needs.
3. In an op-ed 24 on the Washington Post Tuesday, Katrina vanden Heuvel asked “Are there no standards for punditry?” She was referring not to columnists but to former officials who, though disgraced, are invited to tell us what to think, and to the media which give them a platform. Her examples, all apt, were Donald Rumsfeld critiquing the attack on Libya, Alan Greenspan on how the administration is holding back a recovery and, best of all, Oliver North on the need for Congressional approval of military actions. She noted the contrast between the easy forgiveness of public figures and the frequent demands for accountability and personal responsibility aimed, for example, at teachers and students.
“Public officials who have failed spectacularly in office should have the common decency to retire in disgrace.“ Their continued influence is indeed an odd phenomenon. She joked that in Britain, disgraced officials are dumped onto the House of Lords. We seem to have the same mind set — once an official, always in some sense a respectable member of the club — but, lacking a titled aristocracy, we treat ours as elder statesmen. “In America, they become pundits and are offered a stage to argue the same ideas that earlier brought the nation to near-ruin, rewriting history to fit their theory.”
4. Ms. vanden Heuvel ended her column with this observation as to those retired eminences: “As Talleyrand said of the restored French monarchy under Louis XVIII, they have ‘learned nothing and forgotten nothing.’ ” That leads me to economic policy. I just finished a book by Paul Krugman entitled The Return of Depression Economics. Its lesson, easily verified by observation, is that those in charge of fiscal and monetary policy seem to learn little from experience, but vividly remember discredited theories, in many cases because their ideology requires that. Not only are we seeing a return of Depression economics in the sense that the economic situation resembles that period, but our leaders, especially members of Congress, are intent on implementing policies which bring on or prolong depressions. ___________________
