"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

New York Times Takedown

Over at the Village Voice, Allen Barra talks Murray Chass and the New York Times.

Compelling.

7 comments

1 RagingTartabull   ~  May 23, 2011 11:13 am

Chass is a bitter hack with a major axe to grind...that being said, I can totally picture the Times being Hell-on-Earth as a workplace. I'm sure someone like Jack Curry could probably co-sign a lot of this, the only difference is he never would publicly because he's a, ya know...grown up.

2 Chyll Will   ~  May 23, 2011 11:33 am

[1] That said, if two wrongs occasionally make a right I would be interested in seeing a Chass 'expose' on the NYT and certain key players of that erroneous-laced era. But I bet that only happens when the Times somehow loses ground to another publisher or Chass gets really-really-really lucky and ends up in Time/Life...

3 Shaun P.   ~  May 23, 2011 11:36 am

[1] Yep. I do feel a little bad for Chass, and Barra. No one should be treated that way be their employer, no matter how long they have (or have not) been with that employer.

My feelings are mitigated by Chass's Luddite approach to changes in how to think about baseball. I'm not sure that its fair, but that's how I feel.

4 Shaun P.   ~  May 23, 2011 11:38 am

[2] I think a tell-all about the Times' sports section would sell quite well. If I was going to write such a book, though, I'd start my research now. People around the country will care in 2012 because its the Times. Will that many people still care in 2020? I would not want to bet money on it.

5 ms october   ~  May 23, 2011 12:02 pm

interesting stuff.
i don't read chass regularly but i agree full with his column or whatever he calls it on posada.
[1] although i understand what you are saying and though i don't know that much about chass sounds like a lot to deal with, but if a place is truly awful to work in, why shouldn't that come out. workers' rights are being stripped away all the time - i think we should hold employers accountable fot this. in fact, this is my major issue with "accountability" - it is such a one way street. the powerful is always holding the less powerful accountable - but that shit works both ways, or at least needs to.

6 rbj   ~  May 23, 2011 12:23 pm

Chass has been wrong on things, and his insistence that he's writing a non-blog just beclowns himself. I can't take him seriously anymore. However, the NYTimes has gone downhill, such that I don't read it anymore. Howell Raines really did damage to that brand. I remember when Raines was on a kick to get Augusta to stop being men only, and one of the sports columnists, who are paid to write their opinion, wrote that he disagreed. That column got spiked until it was revised. If you are going to spike an opinion that disagrees with you (what about diversity of point of view) in a sports context, what else are you going to spike?

7 Chyll Will   ~  May 23, 2011 1:51 pm

[6] In regards to that, he obviously wanted to spike the ball(s). At any rate, if you're gonna spike anything, Spike Spiegel...

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
--Earl Weaver