Critics and fans alike are paying the same rate.

Here are a few words from one of the NYT's lousy reporters:

For exactly 30 years, I have been supported handsomely for disagreeing with The Times's editorial page, which is dovish on defense, leftist on economics and (with the exception of civil liberties) resolutely wrongheaded. Never have I been silenced, and conservative thinkers have an ever-fairer shake on the Op-Ed page.

As for news coverage being influenced by editorial policy, I evoke the name of my predecessor: that's a Krock. On occasion, a leftist slant on a story slips through the backfield, but with conservatives boring from within and fulminating from without, the news side soon straightens itself out. What is "fit to print" is the truth as straight as we can tell it, which is why Times people are so furious at this galling breach.1

Thank you, Bill Safire.

If the NYT were a truly awful paper, it wouldn't be as durable and influential as it is.

News content is an editorial decision. The NYT, like other media, will continue to aim for its market. If you want news about Madonna's sex life, try Fox.

Regards--
Mary Anne

1Safire, William. "Huge Black Eye." New York Times 12 May 2003. Internet. Available HTTP: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/12/opinion/12SAFI.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fWilliam%20Safire. 15 May 2003.