After 50 plus years of reading the New York Times, I just couldn’t take it anymore. “All the news that’s fit to print” gave me that final push when it published the details of an effective secret surveillance program of terrorist financing. This, plus the incredible anti-Israel bias in its reporting finally convinced me to dump “the Gray Lady” for both emotional and political reasons. In recent months the Times has almost become a caricature of itself in pushing an uncompromising far left agenda with its selective reporting, disclosures of sensitive information which helps our enemies, and its extreme editorial pages. A steady diet of the “blame America” inanities spewed forth from the pens of Krugman, Herbert, Kristof and Dowd just became too much to stomach. For too long now Times readers endured not only blatant bias, but an unbelievable hatred expressed not only for the President, Vice President, and White House staff, but for our own country. With their motto – “my country, always wrong”, - it is reasonable to assume that despite any lip service about supporting our troops, they are secretly cheering for the insurgents in Iraq so that their own misbegotten views might be vindicated. With Bill Safire no longer on the editorial pages – and columnist David Brooks a valiant but pale imitation, why would self-respecting Americans subject themselves to these daily doses of ultra-liberal drivel? Not me. The only question I ask myself is why didn’t I do it much sooner?
The answer might be that a 60 year habit is hard to kick. As a precocious reader during WWII (ages 6-9 years old) I followed the war on the radio, but also by scanning the Daily News, Tribune, Journal - American and PM. I would even take a peek at the Communist Party’s “Daily Worker.” My ready access to most of these newspapers (along with my favorite comic books) was provided by “Max the Bookie,” who operated a kiosk around the corner from my father’s Army/Navy (clothing) store at the corner of 82nd St. and First Ave. in Manhattan. In exchange for letting me borrow and read anything I wanted (as long as it was returned in mint condition), I would take his place in the kiosk standing on an empty soda case, making sales, giving change, and telling everyone “Max will be right back”. (Much later I was told he was busy running bets to a much bigger betting operation two blocks away). But I didn’t get into the New York Times. It looked too big and foreboding and besides, it didn’t have any “funnies”. But by the fifth grade or so I began to eschew the lurid headlines of the tabloids for the Times. There was really a whole lot of information crammed into its pages and, being a natural speed-reader I could get through most of it on a daily basis – forget the Sunday edition. I credit this accumulation of so much useful and useless knowledge to getting one of the highest possible scores on the Foreign Service Entrance Exam some years later. This either says something about the Times or from where the State Department takes its cues.
The New York Times followed me through high school, college, law school, grad school, the Foreign Service, as an aide in the House and Senate, Director of AIPAC, - and as a Washington lobbyist the past 25 years. During this time I, of course, relied on numerous other sources to keep me up to date – particularly during the past decade with the growth of the internet. But the Times was a staple. Up until the mid-nineties my own political views were not that far removed from those of the Times. However, in recent years as the Times has lurched increasingly leftward, I moved toward the center – and on national security and Israel related issues – definitely to the right. The gap between us increasingly widened. The editorial page and reporting from the Middle East created doubt at first, then unease gradually leading to nausea – and finally, I began to retch. The Times’ anti-Israel, blame American agenda is now so pronounced that this once respected newspaper has become not only infuriating, but utterly predictable and boring. So who needs the aggravation when better daily print media is available – like The Wall Street Journal, or The New York Sun?
But, as I stated at the beginning of my diatribe, the proverbial straw that broke this camel’s back was the second time in seven months that the Times, with malice aforethought, exposed classified information about programs designed to protect America from terrorist attacks. This goes far beyond the sarcastic, supercilious style of its editorials, and the slanted coverage of its reporters who report only what fits with their bosses’ biases. The latest disclosure demonstrated a flagrant disregard for our safety in order to score political points against an Administration the Times openly loathes. No matter that it aids those whose goal is either to convert us or kill us. The Times, I’m afraid, just doesn’t get it – and that’s why I no longer get the Times.
I am reminded of the old saw about why radios would never
replace newspapers – because you couldn’t wrap a herring in a radio!
Well, as far as I am concerned that is about the only proper use nowadays
for the New York Times.
Morrie Amitay, a Washington attorney, is a former Executive Director of AIPAC and founder of the pro-Israel Washington PAC (www.washingtonpac.com).