(Note to literalists: the Watched column presently contains only a smattering of 'warblogs' because the facilitator of the template-change--Dr. Menlo--is not very familiar with them, and will be adding more as they are sent to him. Also, this blog may contain areas of allusion, satire, subtext, context and possibly even a dash of the surreal: wannabe lit-crits beware.)
Control
[Watch this space for: Pentagon and Petroleum, The Media is only as Liberal as the Corporations Who Own Them, Wash Down With, and Recalcify]
WARBLOGGER WATCH
Friday, July 05, 2002
Judging by near-unanimous (though greatly appreciated) animus shown Warblogger Watch, I doubt our endorsement will be much appreciated. I am here hoping that our approval will not be regarded by the simpletons as casting disrepute on the man and his endeavors, but Max Sawicky's continuing excellence must be acknowledged. Today Sawicky contemplates Andrew Sullivan's about-face on The New York Times. We've marveled over this ourselves.
Sullivan's praise for the paper was regular and immoderate when he still wrote for its magazine. That all began to change on the Times' hiring of Paul Krugman and nomination of Howell Raines as editor, though as recently as July 2001 he characterized the Times as "the best paper in the world," saying he was "proud to contribute to its magazine." When his contributions came to be regarded as unworthy and "Unfit to Print," as his vanity press describes itself with uncharacteristic accuracy, the Times, in Sullivan's fevered brain, went down the shitter with great instantaneity.
Note to MBA candidates completing dissertations on management and organizational learning: use Howell Raines - easily the most efficient leader since Biblical days - as a case study. In less than one year, according to Sullivan, Raines has introduced a systematic bias and indoctrinated the Times' 2,300 employees with his personal beliefs, to the cumulative effect of rendering "the best paper in the world" into a third-rate property which "simply cannot be trusted any more."
Of course, Saul Newton's departure from the Times' august pages contributed in no small measure to the paper's ruin - at least in his own three-horsepower mind. posted by Anonymous11:28 AM
The Watchers
WBW: Keeping track of the war exhortations of the warbloggers.