Madoff scandal laps up against the stone walls of the Times (or is that a sandcastle?)

by on April 7, 2009 3

If I made a mistake (and I make a lot of 'em), along the lines of the Times running a piece on the Madoff case by Daphne Merkin, blaming the victims for their credulity but not telling readers that she's the sister of Ezra Merkin, who fed Madoff tons of those victims and is himself being investigated, I'd eat crow. That's how the internet works. There's an immediacy and transparency to writing on-line.
And there's a new relationship between writer and reader. The writer can't put on papal authority. The old newspaper guild model is over, the journalistic professional. Everybody's writing now, in the era of email. It's more democratic.
But Times Op-Ed editor Andrew Rosenthal is being very Old School and papal, not admitting his mistake on Merkin, despite pressure from Zachary Roth of TPM (at that last link). In fact, he displays a stiffnecked attitude when Roth calls.
If you don't think there's any connection between this sort of arrogance and the decline of the newspapers, then please explain to me what you're doing on the internet? Why are you seeking information here and not at the newsstand? And how's the Times doing on its bad judgment on the Iraq war, by the way?

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Beyondoweiss, US Politics

{ 3 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Citizen says:
    April 7, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    What's the difference between a Madoff victim and an inner city sub-prime mortgage victim? Do their mentalities differ? If so, how so?

  2. MRW. says:
    April 7, 2009 at 5:13 pm

    If you don't think there's any connection between this sort of arrogance and the decline of the newspapers, then please explain to me what you're doing on the internet? Why are you seeking information here and not at the newsstand? And how's the Times doing on its bad judgment on the Iraq war, by the way?

    Thank yew. And add ME coverage to that mix. I meet a friend at Starbucks most Sunday AMs. He reads his NYT there. Lately the Week in Review remains unopened, and the first section is barely cracked. (He reads the magazine, it seems, more.) I asked why. His answer shocked me because he's Jewish from the Bronx, "What, waste my time reading more hasbara bullshit? They write it for my mom. No wonder they're dying. My mother's 76 years old and she laps their shit up. "

  3. Citizen says:
    April 8, 2009 at 10:55 am

    MRW, I've had similar experiences.

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