The New York Times and the livin’ is easy!

TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014

Public editor Margaret Sullivan runs off with Mr. Peanut: We’re constantly puzzled by work we encounter in the New York Times.

Case in point: This morning, on the front page, a news report about Flight 370 started off like this:
FULLER AND BUCKLEY (3/15/14): A British satellite company has solved one crucial aspect of the mystery surrounding the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared on March 8, using a complex mathematical process to determine that it ended its journey in the middle of the southern Indian Ocean.

Guided by a principle of physics called the Doppler effect, the company, Inmarsat, analyzed tiny shifts in the frequency of the plane’s signals to infer the plane’s flight path and likely final location. The method had never before been used to investigate an air disaster, officials said.

The first definitive news of the fate of the Boeing 777 jet brought heartbreak to the families of those on board as Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, announced on Monday that no one is believed to have survived the flight.

“This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites,” a somber Mr. Najib said. “It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”
We found that puzzling. If this method has never been used in this way before, why is the Times so sure that Immarsat is right?

We’re not saying the company’s wrong. How do they know it’s right?

What makes Fuller and Buckley so sure? The fact that the prime minister said it?

At no point did Fuller and Buckley feel the need to explain their definitive judgment. We’re simply supposed to take their word, and that of prime minister Razak, whose government has gotten about ten thousand other things wrong by now.

That reporting struck us as strange. But so it goes at the Times on a regular basis.

Still and all, the livin’ seems to easy at the Times. Public editor Margaret Sullivan made that clear this weekend.

Sullivan writes two columns per month for the Sunday Review. We’re not sure why she bothers.

Given the column she penned this week, it’s obvious that nothing of substance is wrong or imperfect at the Times. Wonderfully comical headline included, this is the way she started:
SULLIVAN (3/23/14): Trend-Spotting, With Wink at Mr. Peanut

If only I were gifted at satire, or even its goofy little brother, parody. Those skills would sometimes make commenting on The Times's journalism so much more fun.

I could take on those Timesian headlines, front-loaded with prepositions, that the paper seems to love so well. (One from a few days ago: ''Amid Mayoral Missteps, Irish Eyes Are Rolling in New York City.'')

I could dream up elaborate new reasons to grant sources anonymity. (On that subject, one of concern to many readers, I recently started a new feature on my blog, ''AnonyWatch,'' to keep track of regrettable anonymous quotes in The Times.)

But most of all, I could write the definitive sendup of the classic New York Times trend piece. Maybe I could write something almost as good as the monocle story.
Poor Sullivan! It would be more fun to do her job were she better at satire! Possibly, she could write something as good as the “classic trend piece” she chose to discuss this week.

That’s right! With only two columns per month to dispense, Sullivan used this column to praise a piece about the monocle’s comeback. She quoted from the amusing piece, then discussed the playful commentary it occasioned.

Mr. Peanut made the headline! Here’s how her column ended:
SULLIVAN: With its large staff, great variety of sections and considerable resources, The Times has room on its diverse menu not only for coverage of world crises and global economic trends, but for lighter fare: book and restaurant reviews, theater coverage and, apparently, a full consideration of ironic eyewear.

While The Times's declarations of trends can sometimes seem self-serious, overblown and out-of-touch, they also can—at their best—provoke moments of recognition and lively conversation. And because they occasionally provide a full day's worth of hilarity, let's pray that they never go away.

By the way, I'm just back from biking to Bushwick. And I'm wondering: Has anyone noticed how many women are using lorgnette-handled opera glasses lately?
We agree—there was nothing wrong with the monocle story. But then, based on Sullivan’s topic selection, there’s nothing to worry about anywhere else in this famous newspaper.

For what it’s worth: Journalists like Jack Shafer have long criticized the Times for its “classic trend stories.” But they have tended to focus on front-page trend stories which dream up non-existent trends, not on silly pointless fare inside the paper’s Style section.

We find the New York Times puzzling each day. Sullivan’s handling of Mr. Peanut is a small case in point.

26 comments:

  1. Peanut. Perfect for Peeved PeePaw's Poo Poo Platter to Poke Paper following Post Praising Paper's Propaganda Piece Permitting Pan of Perspiring Pimp of Piddle.

    And did PeePaw forget to tell ya? She's nuts, too.

    KZ

    ReplyDelete
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      Contact Dr Raypower at urgentspellcast@gmail.com if you want to get your Husband, Wife, Boyfriend and Girlfriend back now and regain your happiness.

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  2. I was hoping to read something from Bob on how "homosexual" is now a bigoted slur (according to the Times and maybe a half dozen nutty activists).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He might as well try. His old friends seem to be abandonin g his defense in matters about Maddow. He is attracting a few old ones back by invoking racial issues, but not many. He raised a modicum of interest over trans* and belly dancing.

      He may feel more comfotable recounting restroom encounters about complex books at the coffee shop and old pinball machines memorites, however.

      Delete
    2. Wither Finland?

      Delete
    3. Bob no longer cares about low-income kids in Finland. Or Poland, either.

      Delete
    4. Finnish immigrant kids are overrated if you ask me.

      Delete
  3. Peanut allergies have been linked to unruly behavior in tots.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "We find the New York Times puzzling each day."

    Then one must ask Bob the classic Bob Fan question: Why does he bother not only reading the NY Times, but commenting on it every day?

    My guess, it gives him a daily fix and some false sense of intellectual superiority to pretend that he is so much smarter than the entire staff of the NY Times, as he types up his random thoughts to the thrill of his fan club that he imagines must number in the millions by now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. deadrat would say BOB sees the NY Times as a parent figure.
      His differential treatment of male and female writers may be attributable to Edifice complex.

      Delete
    2. Because it is still influential.

      Delete
  5. Perhaps the doppler effect has never been used before to research an air disaster because it was not needed.

    That doesn't mean it was not used successfully in other instances.

    I saw on the news an Australian Air Force aircraft with a navigator aboard.

    Navigators were standard procedure on USAF aircraft for long transoceanic flights, so it makes sense that Australians would still use them, not so much to tell the pilot where he is, but where he should head to.

    The doppler radar and airspeed guesstimates is essentially the process of "dead reckoning", which has been used effectively by seafarers for millennia.

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks to Dr BUDE for not letting me to be my relationship a disaster. i am Emilia Leon. i have been married since 3years and since then. we have both lived happily with our 2kids and it was a bless union until 3month ago i had misunderstandanding and it was little but since that day my husband totally changed. and he started coming home late from work. and i happened like that for about 2month and a half and i was very lonely and needd him to be the loving man i married. i met with some spell caster to help me but they did all they could do but nothing worked out. not until i saw a comment one evening on facebook on how he has restored broken home and now living happily. i contact him directly, and told him my problems he said i show relax that my husband will come back home and be the loving husband that he is like before. and that was it. he cast love spell and in 24hours my husband started calling me even from the office and bringing flowers home to me. all the appreciate to the powerful Dr BUDE. CONTACT HIM NOW AND HAVE YOUR BROKEN HOME BACK TO FEET. ON HIS EMAIL VIA;
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  12. Email Dr. OCUSODO for a strong love spell to get back your ex back

    drocusodospellcaster@yahoo.com My name is Maria Cooker and I live in USA, My life is back again... After 2 years of Broken marriage, my husband left me with kids .I felt like my life was about to end and I almost committed suicide, I was emotionally down for a very long time.Thanks to a spell caster called dr. ocusodo, his email address: drocusodospellcaster@gmail.com which I meet online, On one faithful day, as I was browsing through the internet and I came across a lot of testimonies about this particular spell caster.Some people testified that he brought their Ex boyfriend back, some testified that he restores Womb,Cure Cancer and Herpes Virus and HIV Cure other sickness, some testified that he can cast a spell to stop divorce and so on. I also come across one particular testimony and it was about a woman called Linda Brown,she testified about how he brought back her Ex lover in less than 24hours and at the end of her testimony she dropped Dr. ocusodo email address: drocusodospellcaster@gmail.com After reading all these,I decided to give it a try and I contacted him through his via email and explained my problem to him. In just 24 hours, my husband came back to me, and we solved our issues, we are even happier than before Dr. ocusodo is really a gifted man and I will not stop testifying him because he is a wonderful man and so powerful, If you have a problem and you are looking for a real and genuine spell caster to solve all your problems. contact him on this email: drocusodospellcaster@yahoo.com or add him up on what-app +2349067457724

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