Misadventures in Sunday's Times!

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2021

No, we're not making this up: We received an email today from a major journalist. The email ended with this:

"It's getting progressively dumber out there, ain't it?"

It seems that way to us. As an example, consider three angry letters which appeared in this morning's New York Times.

The angry letters concern a column in last weekend's Sunday Review. In print editions, the column appeared beneath this headline: 

We Stuck It Out in the City

The column was written by Luke Winkie, a youngster whose work has appeared in the Times on a few other occasions. In Sunday's column, he suggested fining people who left New York City during the pandemic and are returning to Gotham now.

All three letters flatly reject Winkie's proposal. The first letter is most measured. Here's its total text:

To the Editor:

Luke Winkie’s splendidly provocative essay reflects the anger that many New Yorkers feel toward those who chose to leave the city during the pandemic. However, the severe consequences he imagines for the returning transgressors ultimately left me thinking, “The man doth protest too much.”

Some of us who escaped during the pandemic were able to do so because of the generosity of people who provided temporary homes outside the city at affordable rates or for free to family and friends. Would Mr. Winkie have turned down such an opportunity? To walk outside without constantly wearing a mask, enjoying nature and the fresh air? And to live in a safer, less densely populated place?

His powerful essay boils down to sophisticated envy.

P— S—, New York (presumably, New York City)

It seems that this writer is one of those who escaped the city. He admires Winkie's skill, but feels that he's overreacting. 

He thinks Winkie is protesting too much—is trafficking in envy.

The second letter also comes from a Gotham resident. He is unabashedly angry with Winkie. 

"Stop the name-calling, finger-pointing and unfair categorization of citizens obeying public health guidance to avoid 'hot zones," this second writer says. "Everyone who left did the right thing: They escaped danger."

"We need less bickering and more teamwork," he says as he concludes.

The third letter comes from a subscriber in Washington, D.C. She joins the others in chastising Winkie. (According to her Twitter account, she's "passionate about justice, fairness and equality.")

After praising the service of health care workers, she  closes her missive with this:

I am a Washingtonian, and I do not own any alternate luxury place. I do not envy the rich for moving away to safer places of their own, earned, inherited or otherwise. If you have no appropriate skills to offer the community, there is no obligation to stay put at the time of a health crisis (unless you are Senator Ted Cruz).

As long as the rich pay their taxes, why penalize them for wherever they chose to live during the pandemic?

Completing the rule of three, this third writer doesn't envy the rich who chose to move away. 

All three writers rejected Winkie's recommendations. There was only one problem with this morning's presentation:

Winkie's column was clearly written tongue in cheek. It offered a type of "modest proposal." Please don't ask us to offer textual evidence in support of this obvious statement. 

At least three readers of the Times misunderstood Winkie's column. That doesn't mean that things are getting progressively dumber—anyone can make a mistake—but here's something else which does:

Apparently, the New York Times didn't realize that Winkie's column was tongue in cheek! At the very least, the editor who waved those letters into print didn't seem to know that.

In many ways, the New York Times is a very dumb paper. We've noted this fact again and again, but for most people, and thanks to Times branding, this rather obvious critical assessment is just too hard to believe.

For those more daring than we: Winkie's column attracted more than 1300 comments. We haven't dared to look.

This is all anthropology now. According to major credentialed experts, there's no way out of this mess!


15 comments:

  1. "Winkie's column was clearly written tongue in cheek."

    Two words, dear Bob: Poe's law.

    Your liberal dembottery is so dumb, it's impossible to distinguish a parody from genuine article...

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  2. "He thinks Winkie is protesting too much—is trafficking in envy."

    Protesting too much and trafficking in envy are two different motives, not the same thing at all. For Winkie to be protesting too much, he must have done something similar himself and be hiding the truth about it. Being envious means he wanted to leave but couldn't and is resentful of those who could. The dash implies an equivalency between these two different reactions. And Somerby is, of course, mindreading again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Winkie's column was clearly written tongue in cheek. "

    It is the obligation of anyone writing satire, parody, sarcasm, or humor to clearly signal their intention. The cues that something is "tongue in cheek" that would be present face-to-face are missing in written communication. That means the author must tell the audience that they are funning. If they get taken seriously, it is their own fault, not that of the reader.

    I learned this in my beginning composition class. This young writer perhaps wasn't as fortunate.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Apparently, the New York Times didn't realize that Winkie's column was tongue in cheek! At the very least, the editor who waved those letters into print didn't seem to know that."

    It isn't the job of the letters editor to second-guess the authors of those letters by judging them to be misguided. All of these letters are opinion. If you give latitude to the editor to censor letters that appear to be mistaken you open the door to bias.

    I also think it is instructive for Winkie to see how some people reacted to his piece. It is better for him to learn this via those letters than to have some editor tell him how to fix his piece.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Despite his disclaimer, Somerby clearly considers everyone involved in this incident to be stupid. I think that makes Somerby the King of Stupid. I would also bet that the journalist who sent him an email is conservative (perhaps Andrew Sullivan wishing him Happy St. Patrick's Day) and that's why he didn't tell us who it was. Because otherwise, we know that Somerby is a shameless name dropper.

    ReplyDelete
  6. All those wealthy people feeling urban areas created covid hot spots in places such as Aspen and Estes Park CO (ski areas).

    The idea that you can walk around without a mask in a small town is obviously untrue based on what happened to those small towns.

    ReplyDelete
  7. 'In many ways, the New York Times is a very dumb paper.'

    Not as dumb as someone as who expects people to believe he is a liberal after spending 4 years defending DJT, Roy Moore, Ron Johnson and attacking Dem candidates as terrible. In short, the NYT is far less dumb than a Trumptard like Somerby.

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  8. There's a much more deserving film nominated for an Oscar this year. It is called "If anything happens, I love you." An animated short subject now showing on Netflix. More worthy of Somerby's positive attention.

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