CSI: American Carnage (Monday, October 14, 2019)
NEW YORK — Jim enters the darkened, hushed conference room. Eleven Editors at the peak of their profession, the most decorated and celebrated and lauded editors in the world, editors representing 379 Pulitzer Prizes, 952 Polk Awards, 16 Keys to the City, three PBS American Masters, two full-length documentaries, and one Nobel Prize finalist in bio-ethical spectroscopy are arrayed around the conference table, spotless pale blue shirts buttoned down, muted navy regent ties tucked into well pressed dark grey pinstripe suits, all acquired from the last of the great tailors of the late, lamented Chipps, still living and supplying Timesmen with haberdashery from a nursing home in Nyack. Jim nods at his colleagues and takes a seat at the table. A disembodied voice fills the room, it must be coming from the speakers discretely placed on the table and around the walls of the room. The voice belongs to A.G., son of Punchette, grandson of Punch, and known in some circles as a disruptor, a firebrand, a revisionist, and in foundation circles and the circles of New York City as a thought leader and a change agent. The voice, to some grating, to others soothing, says, It is not that we are leaning too far left, Jim. We at the Times can lean any way we wish, or no way at all, although many say that is not possible. To which we say, We report the news, and commentary on the news, as one of our greatest reporters and editors once noted in the title of his book on us, we do what we do without fear or favor. That is something that everyone who cares to know knows. Jim says, Of course. The voice soothingly continues as editors around the table jot notes on yellow legal pads, Jim, we cannot be fearless or favorless if we are not part of the conversation. Being part of the conversation, directing the conversation, being at the center of the conversation, this is what the New York Times has always been about. Now, some believe that we should only achieve such a goal through the power of our reporting on the stories of consequence, the actions of leaders, the failures, the malfeasance and so on. But, as you know, as we all know, great reporting speaks for itself. But great reporting requires even greater editing. Our reporters, like all reporters everywhere, need direction or they will follow the news, or what they think is the news. And we know, of course, that they can dig out the story wherever it may be, whether it is the coddling of pets or the coddling of the criminal underclass. They are story-tellers and diggers and some of the greatest fabulists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Because, Jim, as you know, the newspaper, even in these revolutionary digital days, is the fabulist of the community. We still create the heroes and the villains. and the story lines. We decide to follow the little girl as she bites into the apple and we follow the witch who gives it to her. We provide a platform to those who agree and to those who disagree. It makes no difference what they think or say; it’s the fact that they say it, the fact that they are thinking about what we wish them to think about within the safe confines we provide them. We are, in fact, Jim, a safe space for the disgruntled and what are now called trolls, but used to be called cranks and bigots. Within reason, we allow them to whip us on our backs — but every welt raised by the lash makes us stronger. That is what they don’t understand. We grow in stature with every unconscionable position we take. That is why it is so important to print the anti-Biden screed by the loathsome Peter Schwiezer of the ever-loathsome Breitbart. They then attack us from the left. They attack us from the right. They all attack us and those attacks, Jim, are what make us great. We report on them, we report on the controversy we gin up and then we provide a platform to those who wish to comment on it. This keeps the New York Times at the center of the conversation. And that, Jim, is where we need to be. Around the table heads nod. There is no disagreement. And how could there be? The Times is, afterall, the Times, maker of communities, platform for debate, backbone of the ruling class, printer of the news, without fear or favor. – Monday, October 14, 2019