Contributing to Time Magazine's 2009 "Time 100" list, New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. sucked up to Mexican media mogul Carlos Slim (who has coincidentally purchased 6% of NYT Co. shares and lent the company $250 million recently). After acknowledging Slim's investment in NYT Co., Sulzberger gushed:
Carlos, a very shrewd businessman with an appreciation for great brands, showed a deep understanding of the role that news, information and education play in our interconnected global society....As he spoke at our meeting, he conveyed the quiet but fierce confidence that has enabled him to have a profound and lasting effect on millions of individuals in Mexico and neighboring countries. Carlos knows very well how much one person with courage, determination and vision can achieve.
Geez. That slobbering is quite a change from the paper's attitude toward Slim less than two years ago, when Eduardo Porter labeled the Mexican mogul a thief and robber baron in an August 2007 editorial:
Indeed, by this measure, Mr. Slim is richer even than the robber barons of the gilded age. John D. Rockefeller, America's richest man, was worth the equivalent of about 1.5 percent of the nation's G.D.P.
It takes about nine of the captains of industry and finance of the 19th and early 20th centuries -- Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John J. Astor, Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Stewart, Frederick Weyerhaeuser, Jay Gould and Marshall Field -- to replicate the footprint that Mr. Slim has left on Mexico.
But the momentous scale is not the most galling aspect of Mr. Slim's riches. There's the issue of theft.
Like many a robber baron -- or Russian oligarch, or Enron executive -- Mr. Slim calls to mind the words of Honoré de Balzac: "Behind every great fortune there is a crime." Mr. Slim's sin, if not technically criminal, is like that of Rockefeller, the sin of the monopolist.
—Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times.
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Oh doesn't this
May 7, 2009 - 15:19 ET by bigtimerOh doesn't this figure...nothing like brown-nosing...what hypocrites with the double-standard when it involves $$$$$$ and their very own survival...
I hope I live to see the day they sink to the bottom of the ocean.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Wait!
May 7, 2009 - 16:36 ET by heldmywI have it!
"Money talks".
You heard it here, first!
(I'm working on one about " A Fool and His Money...is something, something", but it hasn't quite jelled yet.)
6% of the NYT?
May 7, 2009 - 15:24 ET by SickofLibsI'm certainly no investment wiz, but anybody investing one peso in the NYT in the past year could hardly be called "shrewd" IMO. He's just trying to buy into what he thinks is a piece of America.
A better bet would be to just marry Elizabeth Taylor, although that would prove pretty costly, too. But at least he could say "he was there."
SoL... LMAO...you are on a
May 7, 2009 - 15:27 ET by bigtimerSoL...
LMAO...you are on a roll today!
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Slim call Sam Zell and ask
May 7, 2009 - 15:31 ET by jdhawkSlim call Sam Zell and ask him how his investment in the Chicago Tribune and LAT is going. The stock price of the Chicago Tribune (TRBCQ) is in the toilet and the company is in bankruptcy. By the way, the price of a Chicago Tribune or a LAT paper is more expensive than the stock price that stands at 75 cents today.
Meanwhile, Murdoch's News Corporation, including Fox News, the WSJ, etc., reported terrific earnings considering that we are in a recession.
By the way, do you notice that the NYT didn't bother to compare Slim and Rockfeller on equal footing by increasing Rockfeller's wealth in regard to inflation of over 100 years. No wonder they are heading to bankruptcy.
Also, remember the uproar of Dubai running some of our ports while Bush was in office. Yet, not a wimper from any quarter, especially from the so-called "paper of record," regarding the influence of a foreigner being a major stockholder of a US paper. Go figure.
How long will it take before
May 7, 2009 - 15:33 ET by PewahHow long will it take before we will see a new section added to the NYT...all en espanol?
...a profound and lasting
May 7, 2009 - 15:36 ET by Franksam...a profound and lasting effect on millions of individuals in Mexico and neighboring countries. Carlos knows very well how much one person with courage, determination and vision can achieve.
Indeed, Stalin and Mao had profound and lasting effect on millions of individuals, too. This is not necessarily a good thing. Slim has gotten rich from his efforts, but as the SLA might have called him 35 years ago, he is the "..fascist insect that preys upon the backs of the working people."
He has made money in complicity with a corrupt government at the expense of a vulnerable populace. It should be no surprise that he wants to come to America.
Gee, I wonder what they
May 7, 2009 - 15:48 ET by Scuba DudeGee, I wonder what they would write if former Vice Pres. Dick Cheney lent them $100MM from all that money he supposedly made from Halliburton?
Anyone want to take a guess?
"The wrOng ONE was elected"
What About Soros?
May 7, 2009 - 16:28 ET by slickwillie2001The liberals also will not lay a hand on Uncle Georgie, a criminal who funds much of the democratic party. He announced this month that last year he turned a profit of a billion dollars, in the midst of an economic meltdown. Why is he not also a greedy capitalist pig? Why aren't the ACORN short buses in front of his house?
Slickwillie - Soros investing in oil and gas exploration
May 7, 2009 - 16:47 ET by Gary HallSurprise, surprise..
George Soros disclosed a new position in Plains Exploration
I'd call it a hedge -- just in case green doesn't work out.
(;~/ gary
Oh man Gary...how did you
May 7, 2009 - 17:00 ET by bigtimerOh man Gary...how did you come across that prize?
What a trove of info from the sleaziest man on this planet...what a double-crossing POS...I wonder how how his leftist lemming followers will feel about this?
Oh never mind, he Walks on Water too...after all, he created the water for O and his minions to walk on.
A big thank you!
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Is there a "slim" chance the times survives?
May 7, 2009 - 16:36 ET by sevenThey need more baoilout.