RICH Leaves NYT: Confessions of a Recovering Op-Ed Columnist (+comment)

[kpete]

A reflection on Frank Rich's departure
There simply is no thrill like the thrill of "hearing" Richard II or Richard III or Hamlet or Othello degenerate and decay precisely as he imagines decaying

We are in trouble. And from what I could gather from what you observed this morning, Mr. Rich -- with which I wholeheartedly agree -- we're largely in trouble because absolute nincompoops dominate public debate, that corrosive trend is getting even worse, and you, for your part, are outta here. (thanks for the memories....shit, kpete)
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2011/03/a-reflection-on-frank-richs-departure.html

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Op-Ed Columnist
Confessions of a Recovering Op-Ed Columnist
By FRANK RICH
Published: March 12, 2011

My decision is no reflection on The Times. This paper remains a nonpareil platform for writing a column — not just for its readership, but also for its journalistic freedom. During my time on the page, the most frequent question I’ve been asked by readers is: Did The Times ever censor you, or try to censor you? The answer is no. The same, by the way, was true when my theater reviews regularly antagonized some of the paper’s biggest advertisers.

That’s just one of countless reasons I leave The Times feeling as reverent about it as I did when I arrived. Neither it nor any other institution is infallible, as was illustrated most recently during the run-up to the Iraq invasion. But The Times is our essential news organization, and more so now than ever, when so many others have dwindled in size, ambition and scope. Should anyone have even an iota of doubt about The Times’s crucial role in helping its readers navigate the tumult of the 21st century, just revisit its reportage from the roiling tempests of the Middle East in recent weeks. There is nothing like it in American journalism, and that will still be the case whether you read The Times on paper or get it beamed directly into your brain once Apple unleashes that app.

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Of all the things I’ve done at The Times, there may be none I’m prouder of than, in my critic’s days, championing “Sunday in the Park with George,” Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s 1984 musical about two artists in two different eras restless to create something new. For a quarter-century now, the show’s climactic song has inspired countless people in all walks of life when the time has come to take a leap. “Stop worrying where you’re going,” the Sondheim lyric goes. “Move on.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion