The Future Of The New York Times

[dldance]

The Future Of The New York Times

Several recent threads have questioned the capabilities of the New York Times in the area and accuracy of railroad related reporting. Business Week just published an interesting analysis of the future of the Times by Anthony Bianco, et. al. Following is a quote:

‘…the once-Olympian authority of the Times is being eroded not only by its own journalistic screw-ups -- from the Blair scandal to erroneous reports of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- but also by profound changes in communications technology and in the U.S. political climate. There are those who contend that the paper has been permanently diminished, along with the rest of what now is dismissively known in some circles as "MSM," mainstream media. "The Roman Empire that was mass media is breaking up, and we are entering an almost-feudal period where there will be many more centers of power and influence," says Orville Schell, dean of the University of California at Berkeley's journalism school. "It's a kind of disaggregation of the molecular structure of the media."’

The article does not mention the railroad articles at all but the full article can be found at:

www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_03/b3916001_mz001.htm

[Anonymous]

Per the Fox News comment: I thought bias, politics, etc. were supposed to stay out of this web site!

[Anonymous]

I gave up on my local newspaper years ago and read the NYT when I have time. Compared to the nation's other newspapers they are head and shoulders above them. Only the LA Times, Christian Science Monitor, and Washington Post can claim to be in the same league.

fair.org/views.html is worth checking every day. It tries to counter the disinformation and lack of fact checking all of our so called news media cranks out.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by johnwbaie

Per the Fox News comment: I thought bias, politics, etc. were supposed to stay out of this web site!

That isn't really a political comment M.W. Hemphill made. Even people who enjoy Fox news have to admit that half the time it's more opinion than fact, and that's not what I'd call good reporting. Fox news hired Oliver North as a military correspondent, for chrissakes. I was watching it two days ago and they had Pat Robertson on, talking about his belief that the apocalypse is due any day now (it was in regards to the Tsunami). Come on, to deny that Fox news can turn into a bit of slapstick journalism sometimes seems pure denial to me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching it - for entertainment, and to see grown adults shouting at eachother. But I get my NEWS else where.

[MP173]

Lets see, CBS News....hmmm Dan Rather reporting about President Bush's National Guard documents. That was really great journalism.

I have always thought the best newspapers came out of New York, either the NYTimes or WS Journal.

Everything else is a couple of notches below that standard.

ed

[adrianspeeder]

Here we go...

I just go with "the media stinks"

Adrianspeeder

[eastside]

No other paper in the U.S. can even come close to the Times for international, culture, science, and national coverage. Its business coverage rivals the WSJ's. The quality of its literary and art reviews and criticism is unique among US papers. Even the sports section is well-written, well-edited, and very extensive in coverage. It often prints important speeches, reports, and interviews verbatim. No wonder it's considered the paper of record. I'm not surprised that it wields disproportionate influence. Whether it can maintain its high standards is another matter.

To me, it's the local paper. What you see in the editions printed outside the New York area is about 60% of the local version.

[Anonymous]

You really want to see bias, read some of the early newspapers some run by the founding fathers. All journalists, whether they were Ben Franklin or the current crew at Fox filter the information they pass on. Some of it is unconscious, some blatantly serving political and economic ends. The first rule of a serious citizen is to gather your information from a variety of sources, try to ignore your own biases (see the comments of some of the submissions above) at make decisions based upon the best distillation you can make.

[Anonymous]

Two words.

Mullett Wrapper

LC

[dknelson]

Funny, but people in "my" industry (which I won't name here) say about the same thing about the NY Times coverage of our business that Mark Hemphill does about railroading: they are great about everything other then the one industry you actually know something about.
Dave Nelson

[Modelcar]

...Bias in news media whether it be newspapers or electronic...is on both sides and for one to claim it is the only one that is "fair and balanced" is just a bit much. All report some of the news as it really happens but opinion for sure gets loaded in much of both sides....I for one do not see it one sided...I'd compare it to putting Rush Limbaugh against Michael Moore and call it a draw....

[Modelcar]

Very well said....

[jockellis]

Actually, from what I learned in J school, the above and below the folds stuff came from the NY subways. At my last paper, the Dawson County Advertiser in racer Bill Elliott's hometown of Dawsonville, GA, our publisher (I'm an SOB because I've got enough money to be an SOB) mandated almost such a page makeup and that was just a few years ago. It didn't change until we began using color pictures which needed to be bigger and thus had to go across the fold.
If you are ever in a bad situation and know the press is coming, have coffee ready.
Jock Ellis
Cumming, GA US of A

[Modelcar]

....I worked with an Engineer who migrated from the area mentioned above and commuted into NYC via train and I remember him explaining to me {as he had his newspaper folded as mentioned above as we headed south on a plane}.....that, that was the way they did it in NY riding in to the city on the train, etc....