Former Times Publisher Wins Newspaper Award

New York Times ^ | 4/20/05

[LibWhacker]

SAN FRANCISCO, April 19 - Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, chairman emeritus of The New York Times Company, was awarded the Katharine Graham Lifetime Achievement Award on Tuesday by the Newspaper Association of America at its annual meeting here.

The award is named for the late publisher of The Washington Post, to whom it was awarded posthumously in 2002.

In presenting the award, Gregg K. Jones, chairman of the association, said Mr. Sulzberger deserved recognition for two main reasons: publishing the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and reinvesting in The Times during the financial crises of the 1960's and 1970's.

Mr. Sulzberger, 79, who was publisher of The Times from 1963 to 1992, read the more than 7,000 pages of the Pentagon Papers, a classified history of the Vietnam War, before deciding to publish them. Mr. Jones said that after Mr. Sulzberger read the papers, he was asked what he thought. "Oh, I would think about 20 years to life," he responded.

Until that point, Mr. Jones said, most traditional newspapers had been reluctant to challenge the government directly, and it was a watershed moment in journalism history.

As Mr. Sulzberger accepted the award, he recalled his old friend Mrs. Graham. He told the audience of the March day in 1967 when he met her in Paris to seal the deal to join forces in publishing The International Herald Tribune. They could not agree on whether to call it a publication of The Times and The Post or The Post and The Times. As their talks dragged out, someone suggested a coin toss.

"Kay called, and I won," Mr. Sulzberger said. "Too bad more journalistic differences aren't settled in this sensible way."

[LibWhacker]

It's like the crew of the Titanic giving the captain an award as the ship is sinking.

[blue-duncan]

This must be the equivalent of the Oscars or Emmies and just as irrelevant.

[martin_fierro]

Wotta DORK

[martin_fierro]

Yeah, I know, he's Pinch, not Punch.

But he's still a DORK.

[CyberAnt]

"It's like the crew of the Titanic giving the captain an award as the ship is sinking."


ROTFLOL!! I love how the liberals keep giving each other all these awards .. it just makes me laugh.

[spinestein]

[Until that point, Mr. Jones said, most traditional newspapers had been reluctant to challenge the government directly, and it was a watershed moment in journalism history]





The most important moment came in 1974, when journalists officially changed their standards, removing the prohibition against opinion content in news stories.

Ever since then, journalists top priority in news-writing is advocacy for a particular viewpoint (they amusingly call it an "angle").