NYT Public Editor; hiring Kristol was a mistake

[EV_Ares]

When we broke the news that Bill Kristol would be joining the editorial pages of the New York TImes as a regular contributor, we called it "a move bound to create controversy." After a mistake-laden first effort, now the New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt has delivered his verdict: " Sulzberger and Rosenthal made a mistake." Hoyt's reasoning:

On Fox News Sunday on June 25, 2006, Kristol said, "I think the attorney general has an absolute obligation to consider prosecution" of The New York Times for publishing an article that revealed a classified government program to sift the international banking transactions of thousands of Americans in a search for terrorists.

Publication of the article was controversial -- my predecessor as public editor first supported it and then changed his mind -- but Kristol's leap to prosecution smacked of intimidation and disregard for both the First Amendment and the role of a free press in monitoring a government that has a long history of throwing the cloak of national security and classification over its activities. This is not a person I would have rewarded with a regular spot in front of arguably the most elite audience in the nation.


Read Hoyt's entire argument here.

Link to article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/14/nyt-public-editor-hiring_n_81326.html

[jasmine621]

1. No shit? And just what did they think they were getting.

More proof that CEOs and people in high postions don't deserve to earn those huge salaries.

[ursi]

2. I still can't imagine what the NYTs thought they were doing when they hired this jerk

[Nite Owl]

3. Why aren't they more interested in

the truth and not so concerned with being 'fair and balanced'? Do right wing rags hire liberals so they can have a diverity of opinion? I think not.

"That is not why I think Sulzberger and Rosenthal made a mistake, and I agree with their effort to address an Op-Ed lineup that, until Kristol came aboard, was at least six liberals against one conservative who isn’t always all that conservative."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/opinion/13pubed.html?ex=1357966800&en=ed6cd32f70c07c4e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[EFerrari]

4. They deserve each other. n/t

[krispos42]

5. Gee, what a surprise

"Nobody could have anticipated..."

[frylock]

6. why the NYT has any shred of credibilty around here is beyond me..

they fucking assisted shithead in his rush to war.

[rocktivity]

7. I wouldn't be surprised if Kristol's hiring was "suggested" by the Bush Oval office

At any rate, when the Times actually gets around to firing him, you can wake me up.

:boring:
rocknation

[Sadie4629]

8. "consider prosecution"

is very different from actually advocating prosecution.

Question: If the NY Times had had the info on troop movements, timing, etc. regarding D-Day, how would you have felt about them publishing it?

A free press that has no sense of responsibility is not necessarily a good thing.