Dear New York Times....

A lot of peple have blogged about America's 'paper of record' with respect to their incredibly bad decision in hiring neocon douchebag Bill Kristol as an Op-ed columnist. Sorry Old Gray Lady, you are now the Old Gray Nag in the Glue Factory..

Here is my letter telling Editor Bill Keller that his paper under no uncertain terms, HAS LOST ME AS A READER period.

please feel free to comment and steal - I am encouraging it. More people need to tell him that his decision to hire this creep was "not a very smart one."

(ps: as an animal lover, I would never send a horse to the Glue Factory, but I would send Kristol and the Times)

January 2, 2008

Mr. Bill Keller
Executive Editor
The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018

Dear Mr. Keller:

As a high school student in metropolitan New York during the early 1970’s, one of the principal methods of teaching students about world and current events (being way before anyone ever heard or dreamt of the internet) was by assigning projects that involved researching the local newspapers – both current issues and on those on microfiche. The one newspaper that was universally recognized by teachers as the best source for data and information was The New York Times. I distinctly remember one teacher stating that the Times was really not a local paper, but the most influential voice in all of America. I also was told by my parents (also loyal readers) that the Times was ‘the Old Gray Lady’ of journalism and that it was really “the best place to get the most accurate and current information” since it had “all the news that was fit to print.” What a terrific way to build a strong and loyal base -- and in my case – it worked. For 35 years I have been a loyal and 7-day reader of the Times -- through good times and tragic events, prize-winning journalism and questionable reporting -- my loyalty was never tested. I did not think it was possible than anything would make cease reading ‘the paper of record.’ Guess what – it is possible.

The following is part of a recent press release from The New York Times:

William Kristol Named New York Times Columnist

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 29, 2007--The New York Times announced today that beginning Monday, January 7, William Kristol will write a weekly column for its Op-Ed page.

"We are thrilled to add Bill Kristol's distinctive voice to our Op-Ed page," said Andrew Rosenthal, editorial page editor. "He is a captivating writer and keen observer of the political landscape. His work will undoubtedly be provocative in this election year."

Mr. Kristol is editor of the influential Washington-based political magazine, The Weekly Standard. Widely recognized as one of the nation's leading political analysts and commentators, Mr. Kristol regularly appears on Fox News Sunday and on the Fox News Channel.

Not something I ever expected to read if I do say so myself. I fully understand the need for a newspaper to bring a semblance of balance to opinion, editorial and even news-based stories. The Times (among many other leading newspapers) has often been accused of being part of a “liberal media bias.” To the paper’s credit, it has brought on various (and controversial) writers, as well as encouraging regular columnists to take on all sides. This has allowed for some lively discussions in both columns and letters – all the time knowing that a large portion of your regular audience finds those said columnists to be on the ‘unsound’ side of the political spectrum. However for this loyal and daily reader, the hiring of Mr. Kristol (who recently just ‘resigned’ from Time Magazine) has pushed the Times over a journalistic boundary that I find personally reprehensible and has me questioning how much integrity and conviction actually exists within your editorial staff.

Let me give a few examples of Mr. Kristol’s ‘mainstream’ opinions:

• Iran halting its nuclear weapons program is “another feather in the cap for Iraq invasion.”
• The U.S. should “put everything” behind Iraq escalation so we can bomb Iran and Syria.“Sober, serious” people want over 100,000 troops in Iraq when Bush leaves office.
• Let’s “stretch our Army and Marines” for “another year or so” in Iraq.
• A presidential pardon for Scooter Libby would remove the “cloud hanging over his White House and over the war.”
• College men are “very happy” that Plan B will now be sold over-the-counter because they can have “a wild night” and “the burden is off them.”
• On SCHIP veto: “I’m happy that the President’s willing to do something bad for the kids. ”
• Al Gore “got the Nobel Peace Prize for bloviating about global warming.”

I would not exactly call those ‘opinions’ from Mr. Kristol the expression of a reasonable and astute journalist. Let’s take a look at a few more:

• Kristol suggested that Saddam Hussein could do more harm to the United States than Al Qaeda had: "we cannot afford to let Saddam Hussein inflict a worse 9/11 on us in the future."
• Kristol claimed that inspection and containment could not work with Saddam: "No one believes the inspections can work."
• Kristol said that a war in Iraq "could have terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East."
• Kristol stated, "we can remove Saddam because that could start a chain reaction in the Arab world that would be very healthy."
• Kristol wrote that Secretary of State Colin Powell at an upcoming UN speech would "show that there are loaded guns throughout Iraq" regarding weapons of mass destruction. (Note: it turned out that everything in Powell's speech was wrong.)
• Kristol’s arguments for war against Saddam: "He's got weapons of mass destruction. At some point he will use them or give them to a terrorist group to use...Look, if we free the people of Iraq we will be respected in the Arab world....France and Germany don't have the courage to face up to the situation. That's too bad. Most of Europe is with us. And I think we will be respected around the world for helping the people of Iraq to be liberated."
• Kristol dismissed concerns that sectarian conflict might arise following a US invasion of Iraq: "We talk here about Shiites and Sunnis as if they've never lived together. Most Arab countries have Shiites and Sunnis, and a lot of them live perfectly well together." He also said, "Very few wars in American history were prepared better or more thoroughly than this one by this president." And he maintained that the war would be a bargain at $100 to $200 billion. The running tab is now nearing half a trillion dollars.

On EVERY SINGLE point above, William Kristol was DEAD WRONG. And this is the man you have chosen to write an Op-ed column for “America’s paper of record?” Lets take a look at another subject your new employee has ‘opined’ about:

• After the New York Times in 2006 disclosed a secret Bush administration program to monitor international banking transactions, Bill Kristol said this:

I think it is an open question whether the Times itself should be prosecuted for this totally gratuitous revealing of an ongoing secret classified program that is part of the war on terror. [Fox News, 7/2/06]

I think the Justice Department has an obligation to consider prosecution. [Fox News, 6/25/06]

And this is the kind of respect William Kristol has shown for your readers (including me):

It’s no accident that The New York Times has to have a special reporter assigned to the conservative beat. They cover it sort of like a foreign country, to explain to the editors and the readers of The New York Times what’s going on in that strange world of conservative America, which is two-fifths of the country. [Fox News, 5/30/04]

Colin Powell is not a New York Times liberal, you know. Colin Powell is for a strong, assertive American foreign policy. [Fox News, 7/28/02]

William Kristol also wrote this in a 2003 Weekly Standard piece about his new employer:

Still, the simple truth is that a great democracy like ours deserves a first-rate newspaper of record. And The New York Times isn’t it.

Fundamental regime change at The New York Times is not in the cards. Inspections and sanctions won’t work. Even the French can’t help. The Times is irredeemable. The question is whether a new newspaper of record will replace it.

After reading that laundry list of falsehoods and arrogance, I do not know if Mr. Kristol would have been hired by the National Enquirer, no less the Times. Yes, Mr. Kristol is a smart, affable gentleman who can roll with the punches, take a joke (as seen by his appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), fight back when he needs to, defend his often indefensible positions and generate the kind of controversy you are obviously going for. But while asking for all of those things you run the risk of alienating a large pool of readers that find Mr. Kristol a dangerous columnist who is often spouting erroneous and dubious facts to impart his agenda. And as for those readers, how about the circulation for the Times:

	Avg
Year	Daily Circ
1998	1,110,143
2001	1,151,047
2004	1,133,763
2007	1,120,420

So in 10 years, the circulation of the Times has grown a whopping 10,277 copies/day or 0.9%. And to note, a significant chunk of those readers are over the age of 60, not the demographic group many advertisers (which support the operations of the paper) find attractive. Comparing your circulation to Daily Kos, one of the larger liberal news blogs on the internet.

Year	Page Views
2002	14,206,000
2007	206,000,000

Yes I understand the medium and the measurement systems are different. But the point is blogs like Daily Kos have seen explosive growth in readership, while ‘traditional’ news outlets like The New York Times have seen no growth to severe declines in readership over the same period. In addition most of the blogs (liberal or conservative) have users that are in the advertiser-coveted 18 to 49 age range, a demographic group newspapers are sorely lacking in. Oh, and let us not forget what Mr. Kristol had to say about the founder of Daily Kos, Markos Mouslitas:

[he] is the “left-wing blogger who was not respectable three or four years ago.”

Mr. Mouslitas is now a contributor to Newsweek Magazine. I guess that and 206,000,000 page views are not all that respectable in Mr. Kristol’s eyes.

So after 35 years, my relationship with The New York Times as my primary source for news, entertainment, information and advertisements comes to a screeching halt. (and FYI, I am still in the demographic group your advertisers desire, an adult between the ages of 25 and 54, who buys things, and has an income an advertiser could consider as ‘upscale’). Despite my admiration for most of the work you do, the terrific features and sections (like Science, Home, Dining and Real Estate) I have looked forward to reading each week, I find the decision to hire William Kristol, even for only one column per week, so offensive that I cannot keep ‘the Old Gray Lady’ as part of my news-reading stable.

In my eyes you are giving valuable word space (and more important - credibility) to a very dangerous and troubling columnist. I find that unacceptable. With so many choices to get news from these days, the Times will now be one less on the list that I read and peruse each day. I would bet that my sentiments are echoed throughout a large segment of your loyal readers. And while you might not miss this one reader, I would bet your advertisers will. In addition to the Times receiving this letter, I am sending a copy of this letter to the CMOs of your 10 biggest advertisers as well, just to let them know that they have one less potential consumer due to the hiring of Mr. Kristol.

In addition, I will be finding a radio station other than WQXR-FM to keep on at home. It is time to try a different form of music as well. Thank you for your 35 years of ups and downs – it was well worth the trip. But as William Shakespeare so succintly put it “parting is such sweet sorrow.” I wish you, your staff and your new columnist well in future.

Respectfully,



cc: Catherine J. Mathis, VP Corporate Communications

New York Times 10 biggest advertisers (non-Movie)
1. Verizon
2. Macy’s
3. Bloomingdale’s
4. Sprint
5. T-Mobile
6. American Express
7. Liberty Travel
8. Kohl’s
9. Dell Computers
10. Chase Bank

Sources for quotes and data: Radio Left, The New Progressive, The New York Times, Huffington Post, Think Progress, Daily Kos.