After vacillating over this decision for the past few months, I finally pulled the plug on The New York Times. I am a lifelong news hound who appreciates good punditry, in-depth analysis, and broad topical coverage. For years the Grey Lady has touted itself as the paper of record for our nation, embracing these tenets of journalism. At some point, perhaps starting around 2015, the paper started losing its way. The past few weeks, it has gone deep into the crazy forest. Every morning’s e-edition leads with a shit post regarding Joe Biden.
As I wanted to verbally register my dissatisfaction and disaffection, I called this morning to cancel my subscription instead of doing so electronically. For my first attempt, I was second in line and on hold for 13 minutes. When the agent finally picked up, I was cutoff two minutes into sharing my subscriber information. I called again. Now third in line it took me 21 minutes to finally get reconnected to another agent. This time I was able to complete my cancellation. As I knew the call was being recorded, I explained my reasons for cancelling. I clearly delineated that I was sick of the newspaper’s obsessive slams on Biden while offering barely a word about the craziness and incompetence of Trump and his not-so-subtle march toward fascism. I said that I would no longer support the paper with my dollars. I slammed hard on publisher A.G. Sulzberger. I asked the agent if there were a lot of cancellations following this same track and he admitted there were. He actually stated he understood why. I asked if the call center was located in New York because he did have a significant accent, as did the agent on call number one. He said there are three call centers, one in New York, one in Columbia and a third location that I missed. He said he was local to New York. I asked if the calls are forwarded up the business/editorial chain and he said they are.
I am usually a patient person. I do understand that we are all entitled to our individual opinions. However, the unremitting slams on Joe Biden in the Times, without countervailing coverage of all of Trump’s faux pas, full on bluster, pathetic nonstop lying, and abysmal first term failures finally pushed me out of my complacency.
I am hoping that many of my fellow Kossacks will join the exodus from The New York Times. Maybe I am already behind in the process compared to others. Regardless, I am now done.
Bye-bye Grey Lady. It’s time for you to resign.