William McGowan's 'Gray Lady Down': A Devastating Critique of the New York Times
“Gray Lady Down – What The Decline And Fall Of The New York Times Means For America” by William McGowan (from Encounter Books), is a carefully researched and devastatingly convincing critique of the New York Times losing its commitment to objective reporting.
It opens with the 2006 funeral of the paper’s famed Executive Editor Abe Rosenthal, who retired in 1986. Though bad tempered and with a propensity to play newsroom favorites, Rosenthal is considered by McGowan the last lion of the paper’s once-serious commitment to journalistic objectivity, “allergic to Woodstock” and other left-wing pieties, holding the line against the left-ward drift seemingly inherent to a Manhattan newspaper. A 1970s anecdote on a recurring nightmare by Rosenthal (waking one “Wednesday morning” with no New York Times) reminds us that concerns over the decline of newspaper reading among the young didn’t start with the Internet.
McGowan flags the “Southern guilt” of Howell Raines, the editorial page editor who became executive editor in 2001, felled by the favoritism he showed toward young black reporter Jayson Blair, who came to the Times via a minority-only internship program and proceeded to disgrace it. The most blunt parts of “Gray Lady Down” involve race: “The Times racial script...has come to resemble the journalist equivalent of reparations.” McGowan delved into the paper’s archives to show what the paper thought of Malcolm X in 1966 and came up with the striking headline “Black Power Is Black Death.” Can you imagine that at the top of the Times editorial page tomorrow?
In a brief foray into partisan politics, McGowan cites a fine media watchdog site called (ahem) Times Watch, which analyzed a month of stories the Times did on Barack Obama and Republican John McCain during a slice of the 2008 campaign and found that positive portrayals for Obama outnumbering negative ones by a 3:1 ratio. When it came to McCain, that positive/negative ratio was reversed.
“Gray Lady Down” also deals at length with what I consider the most disturbing coverage the paper has put out since I began monitoring the paper: The Duke lacrosse “rape” hoax, a sordid interlude in which the newspaper’s columnists and reporters often discarded the presumption of innocence while stacking the deck against three white lacrosse players arrested for the rape of a black stripper. The paper defended its coverage even as the case imploded and it was revealed that the players were victims of lies by the stripper and misconduct by the local prosecutor.
Even on the war on terror, a vital local issue after 9-11, the supposedly unserious tabloid New York Post had more complete and comprehensive coverage of local terror plots then did the “paper of record.” McGowanwent after the Times for scuttling two successful anti-terror programs and laid out “The Times’ alienation from military culture” in the “War” chapter.
“Gray Lady Down” reminds us of the ad the Times ran (at a healthy discount) for the left-wing anti-war group MoveOn.org, notoriously headlined “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” That ad appeared in September 2007, just as the troop surge in Iraq began to bear fruit under the leadership of U.S. Army General David Petraeus.
McGowan concluded by circling back to the departure of Abe Rosenthal, the symbol of the old-fashioned journalism he believes was exemplified under Rosenthal’s regime. He’s not a boycotter or even an enemy of the Times; most of his criticism is of the sorrowful, not angry, variety. He just longs for “a much better version of the Times than is being produced by the current regime.”
This article was adapted from a longer version on Times Watch.
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Comments
Bravo
Submitted by dirtydan64 on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 9:37am.
Bravo, Bravo, finally someone from within has seen the Light !!!!Don't need the Times
Submitted by gwalt on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 9:50am.
.....don't read the Times. Sometimes I think that the reason that it still exists is that RCP, NB and other sites link to their stories. If they didn't I would surely not go to these stories.
Maybe Big Journalism, NB, RCP etc, should have a boycott of links for a month. Would they survive it?
"A lot of briefing for a 2 hr. special with Dan Rather. Saw the show & wonder why we bothered". Ronald Reagan
I am sure McGowan will be
Submitted by gopsteve on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 9:53am.
I am sure McGowan will be getting friendly intrerviews on all the morning shows, as well as an objective Book Review by the NYT...
Oh wait...
This doesn't fit the template...never mind.
Exactly my thoughts
Submitted by IgnatzJFahrquar on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 10:58am.
I don't expect this book will find itself anywhere near the Times "Best Seller" list. And not because of the actual sales.
It would be fantastic for this book to do so well that it "has to" crack the list. I'm sure it will be conveniently be "lost in the shuffle".
They put O'Reilly on this list
Submitted by StarAZ on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 11:32am.
I think Miss Laura has been on several times--Hannity, maybe. It must kill them. Today David Carr is lamenting all the people who write for free on Fluffpo etc. I said I post at the NYT for free, hate myself for it, do it anyway--and if they go to a paywall, I won't. I draw the line at paying to be an idiot. Being an idiot for free apparently makes my cut. After all, I post here free.
You mean you haven't received
Submitted by Scuba Dude on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 12:24pm.
You mean you haven't received your invoice? You are being charged 1/2 cents per word on comments, more if you create a Forum post. Why do you think balboa's comments are so short? Libs can't afford to be wordy.
Just kidding. ;-)
NB is still free and worth a heck of a lot more than the NY Slimes.
NYT
Submitted by Unsane on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 12:36pm.
What I find amusing to no end are the advertisements for the New York Times on CNBC. What a joke.
Many years ago,I used to get annoying phone calls from them wanting to know if I wanted to subscribe. I'd ask point-blank why I should subscribe to a newspaper from a city I never lived in. And they just kept on going with their silly sales pitch.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Accountability....
Submitted by adamsmith on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 10:04am.
I want all Communists held accountable for treason once Obamalinsky is impeached and convicted. The FBI, CIA and NSA should use half of their resources for terrorism on arresting all communists in this country....Hollywood would be a good start, along with journalists and professors. Take away this rot and we might have a country again......
Dinosaur Media is going extinct by their own ink.
Submitted by Ashrak on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 10:11am.
Liberal progressive journalists and those controlling the print media think that going behind paywalls on the internet is going to save them. In some ways, I submit they are doing so not for profits but to defend against their own material being shared in places where they do not controll the comments made about the substance, well lack of it, and the analyzing articles about their behavior.
Mainstream media is just like the schools. The "intellectuals" have adopted a title of nobility that supposedly sets them atop all the unwashed masses and puts them in a position to decide what we need to know and what we do not. After all, they know best.....
The shame in all of it is that the Communists were open about their plot to go after television and newspaper "news", unions, schools and their boards and even elected offices within government itself. Communists have had amazing success in the last half century accomplishing their state goals but it is not irreversable.
Information is kind of like water. The need for it is powerful and will drive people to great lengths to attain it. Many seek to control both in order to exact control over people and they make mistake by squeezing ever harder. The more pressure is put on both, the harder it is to seal up the leaks. Eventually, the squeezing itself becomes the downfall. Let's just say that the Old Gray Lady has water lasers, which would slice through depleted uranium like butter, spraying in all directions these days.
Hopefully, they'll read it at the NYT
Submitted by Morganfrost on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 10:16am.
And maybe even take it seriously. What happened at the NY Times is a disgrace to journalism, and journalism is very important in a free republic.
Speaking as a conservative, I would be delighted to see the NY Times resurrected (under new management) as a quality newspaper. I wouldn't expect to agree with everything they wrote, but I'd like to be able to think that America's (once) leading newspaper is something a bit more serious than Pravda or Izvestia.
Geez,...if the nyt times went down...................
Submitted by Patriot II on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 10:48am.
Maybe it would be replaced by a company with HONOR, and INTEGRITY and TRUTH! Wow...wouldn't that be refreshing??
Shouldn't we be asking what's
Submitted by Semus on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 10:57am.
Shouldn't we be asking what's behind all this? Or would we be called hateful, ignorant, fear mongering racists forasking this.
Gray Lady Down?
Submitted by NVRAT on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 11:23am.
She has been down for many years. NYT, who needs her any more. The reporting elites are finding out that no one is interested in the hyperbol they print anymore, there are so many sources for real news with honest reporting that papers like the NYT has become passe. My own feelings are they need to be bought out by someone with integrity and a penchent for honesty or they need to fold and go out of business.
Who needs them...?
Submitted by NeoKong on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 11:35am.
If I relied on them there would be dozens and dozens of big stories I would have never even heard of because they block out anything that hurts their left-wing agenda. The Pigford scandal is getting bigger and dirtier every day. Billions in corruption but where is the Times...? The ACORN and Planned Parenthood stings were certainly very newsworthy but not to the NYT's. How about a story on Ground Zero Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his connections and where he gets his money ? No story there according to the NYT's. He's just some nice little holy man. I could go on and on. People read newspapers for information and not to be manipulated by it's editors toward a certain view point. Readers have abandoned them because they stopped doing their job years ago. I get far more information by just clicking on the Drudge Report every day.
Down the Drain
Submitted by iveseenitall on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 11:46am.
It's ironic how the very ideology demonstrated by the "liberals" ultimately does everyone in---including themselves. Yes, the arrogance of ignorance. The NYT is one of the clearest examples of this, but liberalism has affected all of us negatively in one way or another. From our schools to our families, to our businesses, to our standing in the world and more--- hypocritical, ignorant, immature, vicious, close-minded "liberals" have infiltrated our soctiety and spread the poison of a philosophy of life that has never been successful. From Cuba, to China, to Eastern Europe and beyond-- from South Central LA to Detroit Michigan-- it has brought nothing but misery to the majority of people ( while the few walk off with the spoils). It's disgusting, but it will not go away without a fight---a fight we must win. Talk about "winning the future"?--- the only way is to stop the "liberals" at every turn.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal" (progressive)
I was encouraged
Submitted by HockeyKid on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 11:37am.
to see the syllabus for my daughter's high school government class, which uses news outlets to study governmental issues. Their first unit is about media bias, and how to recognize it in news sources. Now, it remains to be seen what sort of bias the teacher thinks exists, but at least there is the admission that it does exist.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Maureen Dowd still around at the NYT's?
Submitted by Red Jeep on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 11:53am.
Haven't heard about her in a long time.
HockeyKid...
Submitted by iveseenitall on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 11:55am.
I,too,hope it works. Looks like a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, most "teachers" will probably give FOX as their primary example of "bias". Keep your eyes peeled for your daughter's assignments.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal" (progressive)
ChickaBOOMer: Going Down On The Gray Lady
Submitted by StewartIII on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 12:04pm.
Going Down On The Gray Lady
http://chickaboomer.blogspot.com/2011/02/going-down-on-gray-lady.html
H/T to Matthew Vadum's 5/18/09 blog?
Submitted by YankeeBubba on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 1:14pm.
No mention of the Anita Moncrief/Stephanie Strom series the NYT tried to discredit and eventually spiked as a 'Game Changer' that might derail the CHOSEN ONE's candidacy?
Or refusing to report on scumbag emeritus Jonathon Edwards' pathetic activity?
It ain't news til we tell you it is!