Someone smarter than us noted a subtle, perhaps intentional turn of phrase in the New York Times public editor column yesterday. This column was the second whole public editor column devoted to Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley, and her third substantial mention in the ombuds-space-when the first public editor, Dan Okrent left, he couldn't leave without calling a paragraph of her writing "gratuitously nasty." In any event, in her most recent appearance, Stanley is described by current ombudsbot Clark Hoyt as "a prolific writer much admired by editors...." Hold on. Editors? Hmm. Not, you know, readers? Who, yes, actually don't care about her much at all.
Monday, August 3, 2009
7
They should have gone with Kate Aurthur.
"She plays really well with the other children, but until she masters the alphabet we don't feel it's appropriate to pass her through to the fifth grade."
He may have slung the gratuitous compliment in her direction, but he did it while he was backing the dump truck over her for the third time.
The banner ad i see on the left side of this page is for an e-mail newsletter from Newt Gingrich. The one on the right says I can get "Ann Coulter - Free!"
This must be something "Ads by Gooooooogle" does automatically when you post an item critical of the New York Times.
The very revealing thing I got from this Ombudsman piece was learning that Stanley's error-riddled obit went through FIVE EDITORS at the Times before it was published.
Suddenly I stopped blaming Stanley for any part of this problem. Any organization that pays five people to review something should be able to check a few simple facts like these. The errors in Stanley's piece were all extremely checkable and correctable. Given how much money she probably makes for her time vs. that paid to fact checkers and copy editors, I think they should be the ones looking this shit up, not Stanley. Anyone can do it.
I mean ... FIVE PEOPLE reviewed that obituary. Jesus. No wonder newspapers are dying.
The same Okrent who slammed Paul Krugman in his final column as a weasel who fudges facts? Yeah, I really give a rip about what such an insightful intellect thinks about anyone, including Alessandra Stanley.
Who knew the NYT building had a woodshed?