The Trust: The Powerful and Private Family Behind the New York Times By Susan E. Tifft and Alex Jones (Little Brown) On one memorable evening at the New York Times in mid-20th Century, a newly hired Hungarian charmer cried across the city room, “Darling, zay are changing my story!” When the echo reached the publisher of the New York Herald-Tribune, he garrumphed, “Drink is the curse of the Herald-Tribune, and sex is the curse of the New York Times.” We who toiled for the Good Gray Lady cherished that tale, implying that she was not as prissy as she looked. [...]
Search Results for: John L. Hess
Jul
01
1999
A Mote in Their Eye
By John L. Hess
Felicity Barringer, the New York Times media reporter (“Week in Review,” 4/25/99), scolded editors for publishing an Agence France Press photo of a corpse in Kosovo, an Albanian refugee killed by a NATO bomb, without adequately warning that the Serbs could have arranged the body for dramatic effect. She quoted a CBS news executive who pointed out that with regard to news put out on our side, “You’re able to challenge and question and dig back and check in with sources.” The front page of the same “Week in Review” section carried a handsome color photo, also from AFP, taken [...]
Jun
01
1999
Invisible Ink
By John L. Hess
June 1999 The Times ran a disclaimer (3/19/95) for a remark it would not repeat. It said the computer did it. The remark had turned up in a March 15 dispatch about Texas Governor George W. Bush studying to become president. One of the Times ' many editors, the correction revealed, had added in a comment to that story that was intended only for the eyes of other kibbitzers. It was written in what they call a nonprinting script, like invisible ink. Only there was a glitch. It got into print. But what was the comment? The Times didn't say. [...]
May
01
1999
Can We Get Back to the Sex?
When the press gets serious, that’s when it’s time to worry
By John L. Hess
The pundits prayed for the long national nightmare to end, and free them to enlighten us on serious business like shoring up Social Security. They said the public had it up to here with tawdry scandal, that we craved nothing more than closure. But the vote of closure came at the start of Sweeps Month; what we got was more Monica and Jane Doe No.5 or, in extremis, JonBenet. And during the commercial breaks...Bob Dole, peddling Viagra. It must have occurred to many that this man came very close to becoming our president. Considering his avowed erectile dysfunction, that might [...]
Mar
01
1999
Something Stinks
Francophobia at the New York Times
By John L. Hess
For the Times of London and the Times of New York, it is still quite proper to say the natives stink-- provided they are French. When French soap merchants followed the lead of ours to persuade their public that it had B.O., the Timeses were happy to confirm it. The one in London (11/21/98) whinnied: "It's True!: The French Really Are the Smelliest in Europe." In fragrant New York, it was "Hygiene Poll Bares Source of the French Je Sais Quoi" (11/24/98). Craig Whitney's lead chortled: "The French invented perfume because they had to. In the 17th Century, even Louis [...]
Nov
01
1998
Brookings: The Establishment's Think Tank
By Sam Husseini
"I want it implemented.... God damn it, get in and get those files. Blow the safe and get it." So railed President Richard Nixon (Abuse of Power, Stanley Kutler) to his aides about papers regarding the Vietnam War that he thought were at the Brookings Institution. The documents the White House apparently wanted to get hold of allegedly showed that Johnson curtailed the bombing of Vietnam in 1968 to boost the Democrats' election prospects. How things have changed: In the strange world of 25 years ago, stopping a bombing boosted a president's standing, and Brookings could be at serious odds [...]
