TRANSLATION:"Propaganda for the DNC."
Posted on 10/02/2006 9:11:22 AM PDT by abb
New York Times editor urges media to do what it does best
01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, September 30, 2006
BY SCOTT MacKAY Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The editor of The New York Times yesterday told a group of New England reporters, editors and newspaper executives that they spend too much time worrying about the economic future of the news business and too little time turning out top-flight journalism.
"I am optimistic about the business we are in," Bill Keller, Times executive editor, told about 75 editors and reporters at the annual fall meeting of the New England Associated Press News Executives Association at The Westin Providence hotel.
"There is a dispiriting preoccupation with money" in journalism nowadays, Keller said. The flight of readers from traditional newspapers to the Internet is a trend to be concerned about, he said, but not at the expense of sacrificing the traditional aims of American newspapers, such as giving citizens the news they need to make reasonable judgments in a democratic society.
"Who would want to live in a country" without a vigorous news media, Keller said. "What would they whine about if it were not for us."
"Yes, we're in for a turbulent time," Keller said. "But I don't think people should be so preoccuiped with the future of the business that we forget why we are here."
Keller sprinkled his talk and a brief interview after with humor as he spoke about some of the controversies The Times has been involved with of late and said the increased scrutiny from the blogosphere and talk radio has changed the nature of being The Times' top editor.
These days, Keller said, the executive editor of The Times is the "favorite chew-toy of both right and left."
Conservatives sometimes have a better sense of humor than liberals, he said. When The Times recently announced its decision to cut the size of the paper's news hole by about 5 percent, narrowing the daily paper by 1.5 inches, a conservative blogger wrote: "1.5 inches down, 12.5 inches to go."
Keller said both the political left and right have contorted the mission of The Times, which is to deliver news in a fair and forthright manner. It is inevitable, Keller said, that aggressive coverage is going to upset whichever party happens to be in power.
"We are not driven by partisan animus," Keller said. "The adversarial news process does not begin or end with the Bush administration."
It has been troubling, Keller said, for the newspaper and its reporters and editors to be targets of President Bush and his top administrators.
Mr. Bush met with Keller last year in an attempt to get The Times to refrain from publishing a story that the Bush administration had authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on foreign telephone calls into the United States without obtaining court-approved warrants.
In an Oval Office meeting, Keller recalled that Mr. Bush told him that Keller would have "blood on his hands" if The Times published the story and there was another terror attack.
The Times held the story until it could make further verification, Keller said, but eventually published the article by James Risen and Eric Litchblau.
Liberals excoriated the newspaper for holding the story until after the 2004 presidential election. And conservatives were frosted that the story ever found its way into print.
Keller was a distinguished foreign correspondent for The Times before becoming foreign editor and managing editor.
A graduate of Pomona College in California, Keller went to work for The Times in 1984. Two years later, he was assigned to the newspaper's Moscow bureau, where he covered the fall of the Soviet Union, winning a Pulitzer Prize. Later, Keller covered the fall of apartheid in South Africa.
Keller has also served as a Times op-ed columnist and as a senior writer for The Sunday Times Magazine.
Liberals should understand that The Times has consistently "brought you a great deal of information that the White House never wanted you to know," Keller said.
As for conservatives, Keller said, they should realize that The Times struggles to be fair and accurate in its news columns and clearly labels its opinion pages and columns as opinion. Keller says he has no control over opinion sections of the Times.
Keller said he does not "conspire with Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd to bring down America."
smackay@projo.com / (401) 277-7321
Online at: http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20060930_keller30.31cf1b0.html
ping
Don't worry, be happy... Wasn't there some lunatic song with the same idea? The shareholders must love to hear these guys wax on about not needing to worry about profits! LOL
Don't worry, be happy... Wasn't there some lunatic song with the same idea?
Shareholders must love to hear these guys wax on about not needing to worry about profits! LOL
Why have 75 editors when you are just going to tell your lies, un-truths, your liberal wacked out perspective and basically publish treasonous rubbish anyway? There, just saved you 70 jobs. Next!
"We are not driven by partisan animus........." That's a untrue statement if I have ever heard one.
Keller's true feelings about the unwashed masses slips out. We're all just a bunch of "whiners".
Keller long ago abandoned the news.
Good God, what a loser.
Keller is either in denial, stupid, vapid or a simpleton. His ongoing hatred of America and twisted opinions are nothing but lies. Sell it somewhere else, Keller, your words speak for themselves. I can't imagine how all the stockholders of the Times allow this fool to continue destroying a once great newspaper. I watch with eager anticipation Keller's freefall into obscurity.
Maybe they could offer free buggy whips with every subscription.
Mr. Keller is a liar. But it hardly matters, he's also an unwarranted optimist with respect to his unstated hope that once the Democrats are in office it'll be Happy Days Are Here Again for the Times and its fellow travelers. That will, if anything, accelerate the dinosaur media's downfall. IMHO.
I agree. Perhaps it's time for Bill Keller to go back to school and learn what journalism is...it is not the yellow journalism he practices. I believe a good journalist pursues truth and accuracy in what they write, and I don't think Bill Keller or his boss are interested in either. Their main objective appears to be to bring down George W. Bush and all Republicans however they can...the truth and fairness be damned!
They could also throw in a beta max machine and collection of music on 8 track.
You're right. Keller doesn't understand - little things like how people perceive fairness and bias effect the bottom line. Keller probably believes car makers should ignore the wishes of their customers, doctors should act like totalitarian Gods to their patients, and "leaders" should ignore the little people. He's coming across as a self important, puffed up elitist - no two ways about it.
The top editors and writers at the New York Times are paid very large salaries.
So, why should they worry about money? It's the little guys who will get laid off first, anyway, while Keller can continue to indulge his destructive delusions.
TRANSLATION:"Propaganda for the DNC."
Everywhere this guy lands, power structures collapse. Excellent that he is now in the upper reaches of the Slimes...
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