The Sad Suicide of the NY Times

The writing has been on the wall for the last few years and a stubborn, misguided and solipsistic man who runs arguably the greatest newspaper ever distributed in the United States has failed to read it. While a strange, alternate media has grown in influence, his former behemoth that dictated American popular opinion on numerous news issues has fallen by the wayside in spectacular fashion:

That announcement came as the company reported that second-quarter profits fell 82 per cent to $21m, or 15 cents per share, compared with the same period a year ago, when it benefited from a $94m gain from the sale of television stations.

Excluding that and other one-time events, income from continuing operations was down 5.5 per cent for the quarter. Revenue fell 6 per cent to $742m.

Read that again: 82%. They made only $21-million in profit with a brand name that is among the most well-known in American history. Think about it: Standard Oil, IBM, WalMart, McDonald's and the NY Times, the icons of American business.

Publisher "Pinch" Sulzberger was handed a left-center paper and through his vehement ideological bent and poor business skills has driven it straight into the sewer because it became a hard left, liberal talking points mechanism. He's been eclipsed by the NY Post and far overshadowed by the Wall Street Journal in relevance. There was once a time that if it were written in the Times, it was the lead on the nightly news (another colossus that has wained in stature) yet Pinch has managed to alienate so many in the country that any semblance of legitimacy is gone.

No one--including me--wants the Times to disappear but we ask for fairness. Imagine if the Times actually played it straight while reporting the news as the news should be reported.

Here's hoping they understand exactly what is happening to their franchise but, alas, with pinch in charge, they will be a non-entity within ten years.