There’s Hope For the World Yet
A week from today, if I understand this correctly, we will no longer have the privilege of basking in the mental prowess of Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, and Bob Herbert, no longer, that is, unless we pay $40.00 a year (soon to be $50) for their priceless polemics.
Needless to say, I would rather spend 40 dollars on almost any consumable imaginable than the likes of these fools. Will I miss making fun of Modo and Richie? Sure, we’ve had some laughs…but in all seriousness, this is typical of the increasingly arrogant, cocoon-like nature of the Times today. Four things are blindingly apparent: one, hardly anyone is going to pay $40-$50 a year to read New York Times columnists; two, this means that the Times has, for all intents and purposes, removed its own star players from the national debate; three, advertising revenue will plummet, as literally millions of page views suddenly go missing; and four, this ridiculous experiment will quietly be abandoned in a matter of months, probably accompanied by a management shakeup.
For now, so long, MoDo, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out!…
I would pay $40-50 to be excused from reading the Times–the problem is that through academic affiliation I will get online access to it for free. But maybe this incredibly stupid decision gives me moral grounds for giving it a miss–after all, I would still, under these rules, have to endure the Washington Post and LA Times, which would be enough to teach me that I was not placed on this earth for pleasure alone.
Well, if you have access, you’ll have to at least alert us if any of our favorites says anything completely off the wall…oh, wait, that would be every column, wouldn’t it?…
I guess I can hold my nose and do a quick scan for a good cause.
I will miss being able to read Brooks and Tierney under the Times’ affirmative-action-for-conservatives program.
Yeah, even Friedman and Kristof were worthwhile most of the time…
I suspect the main purpose of this is to decrease the merciless Fisking of these columnists — and that it will fail at that purpose.