SlowpokeBlog

Astute readers will note that this week's strip does not fault the New York Times for trying to stay financially afloat; nor does it suggest that columnists should not get paid. I don't follow the philosophy that everything should be free, man (insert bubbling bong sound here). I used to subscribe to the Times' print edition until I moved to an address where they don't deliver. Here's the problem: right-wing pundits dominate today's media while progressives are desperately trying to make their voices heard. The last thing the country needs right now is for some of the most influential progressive voices -- and “progressive” here for the most part just means empirically-based -- to be even further marginalized. By charging a fee and, very significantly, taking them out of web syndication, the Times is causing these people to lose much of their ability to influence political debate. Last fall, Bob Herbert wrote about efforts to intimidate elderly black voters in Florida; his revelations caused quite a stir (though not enough of one, of course). That might not happen anymore.

There is no progressive answer to the stream of misleading propaganda spewed on Fox News -- that is, no reality-based 24-hour news channel doing real investigative reporting and taking an informed, critical approach to White House spin, fundamentalist extremism, and psycho-capitalist BS (see "This Week's Strip" post from 6/1/04). Lefties are still trying to get a foothold in radio, much less TV. The fact that the Wall Street Journal charges online viewers, or that the Times has also put some wingnuts behind that $50 wall, hardly makes a dent in their movement’s dominance. But the NY Times doing this for their sane columnists makes a big dent for progressives.

So, the problem does not originate with the NY Times. They are victims of the ongoing decline of newspaper subscribers in this country. But we should all care about what this does to the state of the political conversation in this country; as if this were even conceivable, it puts progressives even further behind than they already were in actually having any influence on Americans’ views of the world. Ideas do filter down from newspapers to conversations over the water cooler. Let us hope that the Times’ solution does not set a precedent, and that someone can come up with a better way.

Progressive Select™