Business Week Magazine has a cover story on the future of The New York Times. Coverage of the business strategy and economic prospects (not terribly encouraging) is pretty good. BW is rather sympathetic and admiring of Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., the paper's hereditary publisher, and does not even mention his widely—used nickname "Pinch" — probably an effort to protect his dignity.

BW is nearly as leftist in its editorial stance as the Times itself, so the role of the NYT's extreme ideological bias is downplayed. Here is what BW has to say on the topic.

The growing polarization of the body politic along ideological lines also is hurting the Times and its big—media brethren. One of the few things on which Bush and Kerry supporters agreed during the Presidential campaign was that the press was unfair in its coverage of their candidate. Keller says the Times was deluged with "ferocious letters berating us for either being stooges of the Bush Administration or agents of Michael Moore." Complaints from the Right were far more numerous, even before the newspaper painted a bull's—eye on itself in running a column by public editor Daniel Okrent headlined "Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?" Okrent's short answer: "Of course it is."

What a growing, or at least increasingly strident, segment of the population seems to want is not journalism untainted by the personal views of journalists but coverage that affirms their partisan beliefs —— in the way that many Fox News (FOX ) shows cater to a conservative constituency. For years, major news organizations have been accused of falling short of the ideal of impartiality that they espouse. Now, the very notion of impartiality is under assault, blurring the line between journalism and propaganda.

For its part, the Bush White House has succeeded to a degree in marginalizing the national or "elite" press by walling off public access to much of the workings of the government and by treating the Fourth Estate as merely another special interest group that can be safely ignored when it isn't being exploited. The Bushies particularly dislike the Times, which, in their view, epitomizes the Eastern liberal Establishment. In his acceptance speech at the Republican convention, George W. Bush mocked the Times for what he considered its overly pessimistic coverage of post—World War II Germany. "Maybe that same person is still around, writing editorials," he joked.

Hat tip: Ed Lasky

Thomas Lifson  1 07 05