Shameless Shilling
But, I'm only doing this because I'm a fan of Bari Weiss and think you should be too.
Way back in 2020 I wrote the following article in a previous iteration of The Glob. It was titled “Journalism, Then and Now.” I reprint here to explain how I became a fan of Bari Weiss and why I am willing to promote her news site The Free Press.
(The Big Apple - July 2020) - In a prior post I made reference to the New York Times as "The Old Gray Mare." The Puppycat asked me what I meant by that. I thought others might wonder also, so here we go.
In 1951 Life Magazine published an article titled "The Gray Lady Reaches 100." In this article we have this explanation of the term:
The Old Gray Lady will celebrate her 100th birthday this Sept. 18. The "lady" is a newspaper -- the New York Times -- regarded by many in the world at large (and all within its own world) as the world's greatest. And newsmen generally hail it as "old" and "gray" by way of acknowledging its traditional special marks: starch conservatism and circumspection.
Recently, The New York Times columnist and opinion editor, Bari Weiss, resigned. She has published an open letter as to why she resigned. It is worth reading over at BariWeiss.com
She has a lot to say, but my favorite quote, because I think it is Truth, is:
Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor. As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative. (Emphasis mine)
It is this kind of tunnel vision echo chamber think that caused the media outlets to miss the fact of Trump in the last election. Bari Weiss was brought in to the paper as a center right columnist in an attempt to reconnect with those parts of America that The New York Times had forgotten.
In an article titled "Editorial | I don't recognize the NYT that Bari Weiss quit", former NYT journalist Jodi Rudoren had this to say:
A New York Times that has no place for Bari Weiss is a weaker New York Times. A New York Times Bari Weiss feels she must leave is a New York Times not living up to its own ideals. A New York Times without Bari Weiss’s voice, and the voices she has cultivated, is thinner, duller, less original and just plain less valuable for all of us who depend on it.
To tie this all up and answer my Puppycat's question, there is an old song that goes:
"The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be,
Ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be,
The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be,
Many long years ago."
Hence, my reference to the NYT as The Old Gray Mare. See what I did there?
On a re-read of her resignation letter to the NYT I found this quote, which if anything is more true today then in 2020:
But the lessons that ought to have followed the election—lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society—have not been learned. Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else. - (emphasis mine)
I just really appreciate her insights.
Bari went on to start The Free Press on Substack. I highly recommend subscribing to her publication. Do the free subscription and see if you don’t appreciate the insight and in-depth articles and the clear rational thought, and the coverage of topics that you used to see in a regular old newspaper but that kind of just don’t show up on Google searches. You can do that here:
