Erica Jong Writes to New York Times

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/29723

Erica Jong Writes to New York Times
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2008-01-02 19:08. Media

Dear Mr. Rosenthal,

I am writing about the New York Times' announcement that William Kristol will be hired as a columnist for the Op-Ed page. Mr Kristol is hardly a columnist lacking a public voice. He is heard and seen constantly on Fox news and commands the attention of many news outlets.

As a believer in free speech and the First Amendment, I understand the argument that all points of view be represented on your Op-Ed pages. But in fact they are not. There is only one regular woman columnist (and one on your blog), no feminist spokesperson who questions the status quo, no anti-war columnist, no columnist who speaks for the rights of children or questions the priorities of the military industrial complex.

With the increasing consolidation of the news and TV business, voices like Kristol's have many places to be heard. Women are not heard. In fact we are still confined to the ghettoes of gossip and chick-lit. We are 52% of the population yet seriously underrepresented in the field of opinion.

Because we expect more from the New York Times, because we value the depth of your reporting, your attempt to be independent of the general circus of infotainment, we write to you in hopes of being heard. The printed word has always been the seed of change-from the French Revolution to the American Revolution to the Feminist Revolution. Many voices are not heard in your pages. Why give more space to one who who already has plentiful outlets and is not a questioner but a confirmed propagandist?

Respectfully,

Erica Jong

[Buzz Clik]

1. Whoa.

Although I certainly support the NYT's right to hire him, her statement here has great merit:

As a believer in free speech and the First Amendment, I understand the argument that all points of view be represented on your Op-Ed pages. But in fact they are not. There is only one regular woman columnist (and one on your blog), no feminist spokesperson who questions the status quo, no anti-war columnist, no columnist who speaks for the rights of children or questions the priorities of the military industrial complex.

[Jackpine Radical]

42. She's not questioning their right to hire whomever they please--

she's questioning their judgment, perhaps their integrity, in having made the choice they did. And she is right.

[The Traveler]

2. Damn well said (n/t)

[Swamp Rat]

3. Fear of infotainment

:kick:

[SpiralHawk]

4. The K and the R

Well said, sister Erica !

[travelingtypist]

5. Almost the same letter I wrote.

They better freakin' publish one of them.

To the editor,

Bill Kristol is poisonous and despicable, but most of all, his predictions about
the Iraq war have mostly been wrong. And you're rewarding him by giving him
a job at what used to be one of the most prestigious newspapers in the
country. What, sneering, sloppy neocon David Brooks wasn't enough?

Why don't you hire someone like, oh, I don't know, Joe Conason or Robert
Scheer or John Nichols or William Rivers Pitt or Amy Goodman or Robert
Parry or Greg Palast -- people who are right more than they are wrong and
people whose side you don't already represent on your editorial page?

And people wonder how in the world the United States ended up with a
war criminal as its president. They need look no further than the sorry state
of our media for the answer to that question.

With disgust, as always,

[wryter2000]

19. Well done!

And welcome to DU. :hi:

[Maat]

20. That was a great letter (email)!

Welcome to DU!

[MrMickeysMom]

44. True, yours wouldn't necessarily "make it" to the OpEd pages, but...

... I find it highly rings the bell with my opinion!

[ninkasi]

49. Great letter...

Welcome to DU.:hi:

[MuseRider]

6. Brava!

:applause:

[wtmusic]

7. I would read a Jong column

but Kristol? Bah.

[Jackpine Radical]

43. Indeed, a waste of ink and paper.

Or, as they would say on some sites, "What a waist!" Why bother to read opinions that are not only so predictable, but so predictably wrong?

But I treat him unfairly. Kristol is indeed an unerring guide to the truth. It is invariably to be found somewhere other than where he is pointing.

[endarkenment]

8. What she said.

For 30 plus years Erica Jong has spoken with a clear strong voice, and I voice that resonates with me.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

9. WTG Erica! K & R

[Javaman]

10. Sorry, when judith jumped the shark and the times was lax in their

issuing any sort of apology, they too jumped the shark.

Aside from the crossword, they are now on par, reputation-wise, with the daily news.

[defendandprotect]

37. Judith Miller-gate was the most recent of a long line of right-wing attacks ---

on democracy --- hosted by the NY Times ---

Agree with your summation --- and they haven't had a decent crosswords puzzle for the last 10 years!

[Javaman]

47. Very True about the crossword, I was trying to be nice and throw them a bone...

LOL

[spanone]

11. A M E N

[gratuitous]

12. That's it, right on the button

It's not like William Kristol and the views he represents don't have ample airing already. And the dismissive tone of the Times, cheapening the prize, implying that a weekly column in the Times isn't all that big a deal. Of course, if it isn't that big a deal, then why not give that weekly platform to a feminist or other progressive voice?

[Uncle Joe]

13. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, babylonsister.

[rhett o rick]

14. Any thoughts on the motivation of the NYT? Sell more papers? Push the Neocon agenda? nm

[G_Leo_Criley]

15. Say it sister!

"Why give more space to one who who already has plentiful outlets and is not a questioner but a confirmed propagandist?" Erica Jong


glc

[femrap]

16. Sing it, Sister Erica!

Kick their butts.

[pleah]

17. Great letter, Ms. Jong. A very polite slap in the face of the NYT.

[Cass]

18. Excellent letter!

:thumbsup:

[Glimmer of Hope]

21. Very nice!b

[bvar22]

22. I could understand the NYTimes

if Bill Crystol had ever been right about anything....ever.

NeoCons, PNACers, and "Compassionate Conservatives" have been totally discredited.

Why does the NYTimes feel obligated to provide a forum for those who have been consistently WRONG?

[Danascot]

62. Don't be knockin' my man Billy Crystal

"Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place." - Billy Crystal

[live love laugh]

23. Thank you Erica Jong, n/t

[Chovexani]

24. K & MF'n R

I would love for someone to give Erica Jong a column.

[TexasLawyer]

25. Bill F'ing Kristol???!!! I thought newspapers were trying to get "relevant"

in order to boost their sagging subscription numbers. Why would the NYT take on a thoroughly discredited, war-mongering neo-con? And a dumbo to boot.

[txwhitedove]

26. K & R. Great letter.

[stevedeshazer]

27. That is one damned good letter.

K & R

[donheld]

28. Kick ass!

Thanks Ms Jong. :yourock:

[Mike Nelson]

29. Why would ANYONE hire Kristol?

He's so wrong on everything, even Conservatives must have noticed?? Hire Jong instead.

[defendandprotect]

38. Do we think this is the result of reasoning? Or politics?

The NY Times has been busy moving to the right for the past 30 years !!

[avaistheone1]

30. Erica, you made my day!

Truth spoken to power are the sweetest words.

[eridani]

31. Jane Smiley chimes in

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/muddleheaded-fearmonge_b_79089.html

William Kristol is a man whose time has come and gone. There was a moment, in, say 2002, when some of his arguments sounded prudent, if not reasonable. Now, he only sounds crazy. NOTHING has turned out as Kristol said it would, and the process of finding this out has cost the American people a great deal, and not only money and lives. Why the New York Times would hire such a person boggles the mind to think of. The announcement even made no sense, pointing out, as it did, that "Mr. Kristol, 55, has been a fierce critic of the Times. In 2006, he said that the government should consider prosecuting the Times for disclosing a secret government program to track international banking transactions. In a 2003 column on the turmoil within the Times that led to the downfall of the top two editors, he wrote that it was not 'a first-rate newspaper of record,' adding, 'the Times is irredeemable.'" Why would the Times hire such a person? Stockholm Syndrome? Some kind if inside-the-beltway joke? An attempt to lure that bloc of American newspaper readers who listen to Rush Limbaugh? Earth to Times! Maybe they can't read!

Day after day, I read the letters to the editor column. After almost every column by David Brooks, I am struck by how few readers agree with a single thing he says, how many cogently disagree with him. Judging by the letters column, readers of the Times are liberal to moderate, and, most importantly, they have a well-developed sense of decency and responsibility. Has the Times now decided just to stick it to us, willy nilly, by giving Kristol a platform and a paycheck? Who's next, A--- C---, who suggested that the Times building be bombed? Even the Times editors themselves, in an editorial printed yesterday, lament that the U.S. has become unrecognisably lawless and inhumane. Earth to Times! William Kristol is as much to blame for this as anyone on the planet!

So, as of next Monday, the Times feed disappears from my home page, and when I get that 1-111-111-1111 number on my caller I.D., the one that reveals how the Times really thinks of itself, I won't pick up. When they send me the money they owe me for my piece, I will divide it between a charity that benefits Iraq veterans and one that benefits displaced Iraqis. You would have thought that remorse for the Judith Miller debacle would have taught them something, but clearly not. Sadly not.

[defendandprotect]

39. Right --- and the NY Times is also doing all they can to kill Letters to the Editor --- !!!

It's the one place where you could reliably figure out what's going on ---

When Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich were the sensation of the newspaper with followers searching
immediately for their columbs, the NY Times MOVED them off their regular pages ---
Frank Rich to the ARTS section ! --- and Maureen's column was changed to new dates and spaces where
she was hard to find.

This isn't about profit, folks!

This is about a political agenda --- right-wing.

And when readers were sending in love notes to Maureen and Frank -- the NY Times knocked out their direct e-mail addresses -!!!!

This is a MOCKINGBIRD newspaper ---

still making plenty of $$ ---

but having lost its conscience and its soul for the most part --

[Triana]

32. *SMACK* - very well done. And NYT deserves it too...

...I'm SICK of having so few women in media or journalism (particularly political commentary) besides 'talking-head' blondes and the likes of Creepy Crowley and the schizoid Mzzzz Malkin. These gals are poor substitutes - and Annthrax isn't even human. These women are sad, rediculous caricatures of what a female journalist or Op-Ed person ought to be - yet THEY are put out there as something to somehow be taken seriously in the field? :wtf:

I think they do more to damage the cause of women op-eds/journalists than to help it. OBVIOUSLY. And I often wonder if that's deliberate...

Some of my heroines are Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, Helen Thomas...WHY not ask one of them to fill the position they stuck Kristol in? It seems like these ladies would be more in keeping with what type of news outlet the NYT purports to be - than Kristol.

women are "52% of the population yet seriously underrepresented in the field of opinion"...

NO friggin excuse for it. Except mysogenism and corprat good ol boy mentality.

[Nikki Stone1]

33. Her points are well taken--The NYTimes has become a rag. If it weren't for Krugman,

I wouldn't read them at all.

[McCamy Taylor]

34. Watch them stop reviewing her books. They need a dedicated NeoCon at the NYT to make war on Iran

so they hired Kristol. What is everyone so upset about? At least with Kristol, we know what we are getting. No more "reporters" pretending to give us unbiased news that is actually Cheney propaganda of the type we have seen from Judy Miller, Michael Gordon and Mark Mazzetti.

People should be glad that the NYT is going to use a name brand NeoCon for all their propaganda now. Truth in advertising.

Would you rather they hired John Solomon away from the WaPo?

[DCKit]

35. Another great catch Babs. Rec'd n/t

[defendandprotect]

36. The NY Times has been a farce for quite some long, long time ---

It long ago lost it's very soul ---

One of the major ways that ExxonMobil was able to distort information about Global Warming --
to lie and propagandize was on the NY Times Op-Ed pages as an "ad-editiorial" which means that
the NY Times wouldn't accept comments or letters about "ads."

So -- for more than 30 years of pollution and Global Warming, ExxonMobil used their NY Times
soapbox to confuse and lie to the public.

Further, the NY Times makes women invisible --- disappears them!

To date, females just do not appear on the NY Times front page above or below the fold ---
UNLESS --- and we're seeing more of this in the last 6 months --- they are victims of some kind.

Erica Jong is great ---
but if she still expects "more" of the NY Times she's naive ---

[pjt7]

40. I wish I could write like that

Nice work Erica!

My question is who is the specific trashman @ the NY Times that hired Kristol?

[defendandprotect]

56. Good question ... !! Someone at the NY Times might give us a hint along the way???

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

41. Erica Jong hits it out of the park This country needs to give more women a voice, but

the only females who command the corporomedia's attention are the Britneys/Parises and the dead/missing young, pretty ones.

The articulate, impassioned and compelling voices of the learned, literate, impassioned and brave women of our country are kept out of hearing, out of view.

:toast: to Ms. Jong and in the inimitable words of Mae West…”A dame that knows the ropes is unlikely to get tied up”. :toast:

MKJ

[Giant Robot]

45. Ms. Jong

In case you read my little post here,

:patriot:

That was an amazing, accurate, and no holds barred letter. I am now ashamed to have never read anything you have written before now.

[Caoimhe]

53. No joke

But, "Fear of Flying" changed my life. The way I viewed the world.. as a woman who grew up in a conservative home.. was systematically challenged, smashed into pieces and then transformed into one of self determination and independence. I would be interested to hear a guy's take on it.

[closeupready]

46. Spot on, Ms. Jong.

n/t

[librechik]

48. Thanks, Erica. Get ready for Ann Coulter, NYT columnist

oh well. good letter. she can't help it that Rosenthal is an idiot.

[TahitiNut]

52. ... or Michelle Malkin or Debbie Schlussel or ...

:puke:

[Mad_Dem_X]

50. Amen!!!

Terrific letter.

[LiberalEsto]

51. Bravo, Erica

Oh, for another Molly Ivins...

[Tom Joad]

54. the job of the New York Times is to promote war. Their job is to misinform the American public

In an effort to support the elite. Since so few of us are part of the very wealthy elite (of course, you can't be elite if you have much company), it is, as bush would say "a hard job".

The New York Times does their job well. the owners are complete warmongering assholes.

[LSK]

55. did she forget about Paul Krugman?

:shrug:

[SlingBlade]

57. Why hire William Kristol ? Elementary my dear friends.

They see the writing on the wall as clearly as we do, They are about to lose power and this is step one on reviving of Clinton Gate, Obama Gate, Edwards Gate or some other witch hunt now in the making.

FoxNews which is there main propaganda base has pretty much been exposed for what it is along with the hypocrites on the A.M Dial, so this is the remaking of the Right Wing Propaganda vehicle.

Hold on to your hats, These hell bound Demons are not about to give up and go quietly into that good night of political obscurity.

[iamahaingttta]

58. Dear Mr. Rosenthal?

Something stinks here. Is someone putting words in Erica Jong's mouth?

A.M. Rosenthal died in May of 2006. I would think that Erica Jong would damn well know this. Who is this Mr. Rosenthal she 's addressing? Is there now another Mr. Rosenthal on the editorial board at the New York Times? Not that I can find.

"There is only one regular woman columnist..." Gail Collins and Maureen Dowd are two women. I would think that Erica Jong would know this.

"no anti-war columnist, no columnist who speaks for the rights of children or questions the priorities of the military industrial complex..." what about Nicholas Kristoff? What about Bob Herbert?

I can't find this letter on the NYTimes website. Was it even published there? Why so many inaccuracies?

I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be bullshit...

(be aware - I'm NOT defending the NYTimes here. I think they suck ass. My father spent his career as an editor there, so I know a little about the place. it's no longer my father's NYTimes. fuck 'em!)

[Marnieworld]

59. What exactly is a "woman's" point of view?

Is it Monica Crowley or Katrina vanden Heuvel? I am against Kristol and I appreciate that she would so publically make a statement but it needed some editing. Women don't speak with one voice and it's kind of old-fashioned to me to say that they should just base things on gender.

[Mrspeeker]

60. Judith Miller

What else can I say, the Times went to bat for the Bush administration a long time ago, so long that in fact it lead us into a war and now you say its discrimination because of gender...well explain Judith Miller to me, cause she is a female BTW!

[burythehatchet]

61. William Kristol, Dan Quayle's gift of herpes to America.

[janx]

63. Chick-lit was really one of the worst fads

in "literary" fiction that ever came down the pike. Cheers to Erica Jong.