Today, the New York Times let rocker Bruce Springsteen strut his stuff in a banal op—edаwhich promotes a concert he and fellow musicians are taking on to the road to drum up support for the defeat of President George Bush.
Does anyone have a problem with the Times letting some of the most valuable real estate in the journalistic world be used as an advertisement for a political concert? In space that has been graced with the wisdom of Presidents, Nobel Prize winners, Secretaries of State, Prime Minister from foreign lands, we now have advice regarding our future from a man who—despite his immense musical talents—has never graduated from college.
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This is the culmination of trends at the Times that have seen the Arts and Entertainment section of the Times being used for political purposes (Frank Rich's crusade against Mel Gibson, for example) and the cultural coverage become completely politicizedа as comprehensively noted by Roger Kimball here.
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Now we see the editorial page become a forum for political wisdom that springs from the head of a rock star.

Posted by Edа 8 5 04