Times journalists fight for pensions, paper be damned

Washington Examiner ^ | Apr 25, 2012 | Staff

[bkopto]

"What am I gonna do? Am I gonna eat cat food? Am I gonna move in with my kids? Am I gonna commit suicide?"

These complaints come not from a laid-off auto worker or a victim of foreclosure, but from longtime New York Times reporter Donald McNeil. His alarming quote expresses his fears that the New York Times Co. will freeze its defined-benefit employee pension plan and make the transition to a defined-contribution system. The Newspaper Guild, the union, which represents McNeil and other Times journalists, released his complaints and others in an Internet video as a protest against the 401(k) plans used by nearly every new worker in America who has retirement benefits.

We'll leave it to the Times, its employees and its shareholders to settle the dispute. As spectators, we find it mind-boggling that journalists from a leading national newspaper would vigorously resist a trend they have been chronicling for years. What's good for the rest of us is evidently not good enough for toplofty Timesmen.

[Secret Agent Man]

Well we were told Reagan was going to force grandma and grandpa to eat dog food. Sounds about right although cat food is probably a step down.

[Wordkraft]

Well...you might want to try to go out and find honest employment. I hear they’re hiring at Mickey D’s and you can get a discount on the food.

It’s time to take care of yourself using hard work and honesty.

[count-your-change]

At least he's exploring his options and planning ahead. Now’s a good time for him to stock up on the premium cat food.

[ully2]

Probably tastes the crap they been feeding the public.

[Oatka]

"What am I gonna do? Am I gonna eat cat food? . . ."

No, for a few cents more you can upgrade to Kraft Mac 'n Cheese and a can of ALPO - makes a great casserole - according to an old gold miner I worked with.

[jmax]

Note to Mr. McNeil: If you chose to be a communist, chose to work for communists, they get to chose what to give you, baby.

Pssss, hey Mac..... I asked my pups to ask the neighbor's cat about which food is best....said Friskies is something you can wrap your tongue around and 9 Lives is so-so, but Fancy Feast has little bones in it. Perhaps you can ask your communist friends what they recommend.

[jmax]

choose....chose.....chosen.... DUH...you get the drift.

[patton]

Nice umlaut.

[SandRat]

My dog isn’t over-fussey, he just wants everything.

[SaraJohnson]

Which choice would best serve to end man-made global warming, I wonder. Idunno.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

ü

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Let me try that again:

& uuml; (no space after the &)

[patton]

ü

C ö OL

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

LÖL

Thanks, you just made me think that it could add a certain je ne sais quoi to texting acronyms.

[kcvl]

Donald McNeil

Donald Gerard McNeil, Jr. (born February 1, 1954 San Francisco, California) is a science and health journalist for The New York Times.

He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1975, with a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric. He started the Times in 1976 as a copy boy. He left in 1979, and taught journalism at Columbia University, while studying history. From 1995 to 2002, he was a foreign correspondent based in South Africa and France.

He is married and lives in Brooklyn. He has two daughters and a stepson.

[patton]

Sch ö nen dank - thank you.

This is driving me nuts - how do you lose the spaces?

[bert]

Perhaps he should move and get a job at a Gannet paper or perhaps the Chicago Tribune

[patton]

Sch<ö>nen Dank.

Forgive me for being an idiot, but I am missing something.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Just type the html code into the word, with no spaces added, and you'll get this: Schönen.

(HTML code wasn't meant for humans.)

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

I should have added that no pointy brackets < > are needed.