I’ve read the New York Times all my adult life and am one of your first online readers. I am old enough to have seen the Beatles at Shea and young enough to have been in working in Manhattan on the morning of 9/11, and for years afterward on the recovery. I had a modest role in the opening of telecommunications markets to competition. My New York and open market credentials are solid.
I am canceling my subscription.
The New York Times has the finest writers and journalists I have ever enjoyed. This is not about them.
It is now obvious that the paper has an expressed preference for failed neo-liberal ideology. Blindsided by the hijacking of the Nation’s political institutions by a minority of ignorant bigots, the Times seems to have wandered editorially into an acceptance of this as natural, even evolutionary.
It’s not.
This is a war.
The New York Times appears to be unprepared for the magnitude of the challenge. Instead of publishing absurd pieces on the difficulty of a being a conservative high school student in a liberal high school, the “Week in Good News”, or attempting to weigh carefully the veracity of individual drips from the firehose of falsehoods spewed daily by the GOP leadership and its enablers, the paper should be leading the effort to delegitimize them. Each day, in small print, at the back of the paper should be a mere list of the current lies told by this White House and Republicans absent any elaboration. The rest of the paper should be devoted to building a consensus for new politics, new leadership, and new ideas to stymie the fascist and oligarchic tendencies now so obvious. Until the threat is passed and some are deservedly imprisoned and shunned, there can be no equivocation.
Unfortunately, I have come to conclude the Times is rather now a champion of privileged ultra-rich neo-liberal elites who transcend either party and who have given 21st Century America nothing but failure and hardship. It celebrates the 1% which are its devoted readers, and suffers the rest of us. In the current crisis, it seems the Times can only wring its hands at the wholesale destruction of honored norms and values, and while doing so give cover to the weak-kneed malpractice of the current opposition party in both Washington, Albany, and Gracie Mansion.
Grow a pair.
Your role and manner now reminds me of a fight between three brothers, one of whom is obviously a dissociative psychopath with a knife, another is an Rhodes scholar and a pacifist, and the third is confined to a wheelchair. The first is attacking the third while the second one tries to reason with him. The Gray Lady is like their mother fretting about all her children and wringing her hands pleading with them to be good. We all know the boy with the knife needs to be institutionalized or imprisoned and Mom can either help that happen, or continue to be an unwilling enabler.
Wow, what a letter, Chip! Good work. I continue to agonize every time I see the monthly autopay of $8 going to the NYT. Cancel, or not? Damn. Still paying...
Jess, now that you've canceled: If you see an article but can't access it, just email me and I'll get you a guest article link, in all likelihood pronto!
I did just that! Meanwhile a fellow local Dem who is a retired journalist gave me heaping suggestions for alternatives. I felt overwhelmed and then decided to get the cheap NYT. Which is not making enough of the point about their irresponsible journalism.
And today they are STILL hammering on Biden's age! What is WRONG with this country? And that goes for Maureen Dowd, whom I will never forgive for how she disparaged Hillary non-stop.
Have a retired journalist friend who gave me a whole bunch of suggestions, too many for me, and I do read the Guardian occasionally. She said they are a bit too biased towards the left. None of them are perfect. Best to read several but my time is limited so I need to pick one and live with their imperfections.
What I did was re-subscribe to the NYT at half the price I was paying. I hope I made a point with the NYT, they really shocked and disappointed. I like the NYT comments section and have really learned a lot from that feature over the years.
That letter says ALL the things. I’ve felt this way about the NYT over the last 6 months. It’s been eating away at me and I’ve considered cancelling my subscription. (I type this while I sip coffee from my *Biden* Dark Brandon mug, where Biden’s sunglasses transform to a glowy red color when a hot beverage hits it. I love that he snatched that stupid meme from maga and reinvented it for his campaign swag 😎. I’m re-focusing my $ toward donations to candidates that are doing the work and give a s***.
Thank you for the idea to send a card to Rep. Al Green. He signed a hospital waiver to go to the Capitol! What a dedication to public service and the people. I was originally going to write “I wish we had more representatives like that.”but I realized I can take action to help get others like Rep. Green elected.
I wrote again to the the individual in the News Department at the NYT with whom I had one email exchange, and copied the two journalists that Jessica submitted a copy of her LTE to:
Aidan:
Today Jessica Craven announced that she had finally canceled her subscription to the NYT, and submitted the following as an LTE, and am trying to direct it as well to Michael Scherer and David Halbfinger:
I’m writing as a subscriber to say that your reporting on the Hur report yesterday bordered on journalistic malpractice.
Your coverage largely ignored the fact that Biden was fully exonerated and instead harped (in a headline you’ve thankfully since changed), on the “political nightmare” of the partisan attacks on his memory. You framed your coverage as ‘analysis.' The reality, as Popular Information’s Judd Legum swiftly pointed out, is that "stories like this are the story.”
What can the New York Times be thinking? Trump shows clear signs of cognitive impairment. You regularly give him a pass. President Biden is considered by all who’ve interacted with him—including his political enemies—to be sharp and capable. The Hur report was written by a former Trump associate; it was a political hit piece and the Times bought into it with zero journalistic scrutiny.
I have to ask again, do your editors WANT a Trump presidency? Because that’s what your misleading, biased, and hysterically one-sided coverage will bring us.
History will not be kind to the Times for its relentless attacks on the one man capable of saving us from dictatorship. Shame on you.
I agree with her.
I read the first 14-Pages of the Hur report, and the NYT reporting appears to have been written with the following as guidance: "How can I report this in the most damaging way possible for Biden?"
I implore you to help correct the course of the News Department.
We are just asking for a lack of severe overcorrection in the misguided effort to appear "balanced" to the far-right.
Among other and many wonderful things today, Jess, thank you posting the idea and address to send a handwritten card to Rep. Al Green. Since my best intentions are not always realized, I called his office to express my appreciation. A kind person, Claudia, took my call and my (emotional) message of gratitude. It was a lovely exchange. If anyone else is inclined, Rep. Green's office #: (202) 225-7508.
And, TY for sharing T Harrington's 'call to action!' It was liberating to make even a modest contribution today, as a gesture of support of our GREAT President Biden!
I am so glad you're encouraging letters to NYTimes. I write regularly, several times a week, about their egregious, prejudicial coverage. Also to WaPo but less often. We need to flood them with letters daily, because every day in small ways and large, they are at it. It's the drip, drip effect that adds up to depressing people, depressing activism, adding to hopelessness and despair. All bad. I have a dilemma though -- I also feel like giving up my subscription but then I wouldn't be writing these letters, alerting others I know about their version of "disinformation". I have a group of friends and family who are interested when I give examples that they don't notice because they've grown so used to it.
Just another little fact about the as usual sensationalized coverage of Biden. He gave his depositions right after (I read the next day after) he returned from his Middle East visit, not long after the Oct 7 attack. A strenuous trip during a perilous and difficult time. Who wouldn't be tired, distracted?? When people I talk to start talking about how old he is, I remind them of things like that trip (overseas flights, non-stop meetings with heads of state in a war zone) and on the evening of return addresses the nation to report. I know people half his age who complain about jet lag for days! We need to keep reminding people constantly about reality.
Lately the NYT HAS been very depressing and hopeless, and for me I had resigned myself to it as I trusted them so much I didn't realize they were gaslighting me, like a manipulative parent or partner. Always considered the NYT to be the highest quality newspaper in the country. Maybe they were at one time but nothing stays the same.
Like when a best friendship goes sour. You stay because of the past good history, not realizing that the friendship has changed and is not working in the present.
This is why it's sooo important to have a variety of news sources and political resources--and a variety of friends and acquaintances.
My advice to those in the pro-democracy coalition:
Cancel subscriptions to legacy media, stop watching cable, cancel most podcasts, stop listening to legal analysts (who vary from pandering to consistently wrong).
Focus on direct action to save democracy (as Jessica details daily).
For me, there is only 1 choice: voting up and down ballot for Democrats to stave off fascism. There are no opinions or reporting that will change my voting plans.
Not voting or voting for 3rd party candidates are not valid options. I'm disgusted with the choice I have, but I won't be the one who allows the hell of fascism to further spread.
I just wrote a "Thank You" postcard to Rep. Green, bumped up my monthly contribution to the Biden-Harris campaign and added an extra one-time contribution as well.
I recently cancelled my subscriptions to your "once" storied newspaper because of your hopeless bias against president Biden while you look the other way on the majority of Trumps failings. I'm tight with a nickel but I started this subscription it as I thought you were a force for good during the Trump years and it was civic duty to support that effort.
Yesterdays over the top frontpage frenzy of your Biden ageism was a perfect example of why you have lost my business. 5 articles on Biden's age . One article on Biden's verbal gaffes where deep into the article you finally mention that Trump makes them as well, but they don't matter! The writer says no one is questioning his sharpness. As we say in the country, that is pure BullSh*t ,and here you are perpetuating that. If the NYT was remotely even-handed you would be daily tearing into and featuring Trumps word salad of incoherent thoughts and exposing the foolishness of his nuance-less proclamations. But you aren't. I don't know if you are lazy or just greedy for Trump to be back, hopeful your business will grow. Are you trying to butter him up so if he is elected he won’t come after you with a red-hot poker? Good luck with that. Just ask Rudy how its going bowing to Trump. Please wake up and change course. Maybe I'll be back. In the meantime I have redirected my funds to people who seem to understand the stakes and what's going on - Hubble, Cox, Craven, and the Guardian.
Please wake up - we need your voice helping our country's and kids’ future, not destroying it.
You are an amazing inspiration. Many many thanks for your tireless and effective work. I suggest your Substack to people all the time. Its so uplifting to be in this fight with leaders like you.
Hi, Jess. As we look ahead to maintaining the Senate, there’s a disturbing development in true-blue MD. Don’t know if Trone or Alsobrooks will prevail in the (D) primary, but it appears he/she may be facing former Gov. Larry Hogan in the general. We haven’t had an (R) Senator in decades.
However, Hogan (a seemingly ‘rational’ anti-Trumper) tends to draw from across the spectrum and - assuming he takes the (R) primary - will pose a hefty challenge for whomever seeks to replace reliable, retiring Ben Cardin. Might want to keep our powder dry, and volunteers/donors at the ready for such a development. Just a heads-up. Meanwhile, warmest thanks for your tireless efforts! Sharon Dorsey, Ocean Pines MD
We need a project to expose Elise Stefanik for who she is and a campaign to get the word out not only in her district in northern New York but nationally as well. Can you help to pull together the truth about her such as her words on the House floor on Jan 6 and what she has been saying recently. Did she have a role in the House debacle over the recent impeachment vote.
True, but it felt so good to write. If you want a newspaper with superb online presence, live reporting, incisive journalism, well executed investigative work, beautiful photographs, and good politics please consider subscribing to the Guardian (US edition). After a long search, I finally found a good newspaper.
Here is my 2018 cancellation letter:
Dear Sirs,
I’ve read the New York Times all my adult life and am one of your first online readers. I am old enough to have seen the Beatles at Shea and young enough to have been in working in Manhattan on the morning of 9/11, and for years afterward on the recovery. I had a modest role in the opening of telecommunications markets to competition. My New York and open market credentials are solid.
I am canceling my subscription.
The New York Times has the finest writers and journalists I have ever enjoyed. This is not about them.
It is now obvious that the paper has an expressed preference for failed neo-liberal ideology. Blindsided by the hijacking of the Nation’s political institutions by a minority of ignorant bigots, the Times seems to have wandered editorially into an acceptance of this as natural, even evolutionary.
It’s not.
This is a war.
The New York Times appears to be unprepared for the magnitude of the challenge. Instead of publishing absurd pieces on the difficulty of a being a conservative high school student in a liberal high school, the “Week in Good News”, or attempting to weigh carefully the veracity of individual drips from the firehose of falsehoods spewed daily by the GOP leadership and its enablers, the paper should be leading the effort to delegitimize them. Each day, in small print, at the back of the paper should be a mere list of the current lies told by this White House and Republicans absent any elaboration. The rest of the paper should be devoted to building a consensus for new politics, new leadership, and new ideas to stymie the fascist and oligarchic tendencies now so obvious. Until the threat is passed and some are deservedly imprisoned and shunned, there can be no equivocation.
Unfortunately, I have come to conclude the Times is rather now a champion of privileged ultra-rich neo-liberal elites who transcend either party and who have given 21st Century America nothing but failure and hardship. It celebrates the 1% which are its devoted readers, and suffers the rest of us. In the current crisis, it seems the Times can only wring its hands at the wholesale destruction of honored norms and values, and while doing so give cover to the weak-kneed malpractice of the current opposition party in both Washington, Albany, and Gracie Mansion.
Grow a pair.
Your role and manner now reminds me of a fight between three brothers, one of whom is obviously a dissociative psychopath with a knife, another is an Rhodes scholar and a pacifist, and the third is confined to a wheelchair. The first is attacking the third while the second one tries to reason with him. The Gray Lady is like their mother fretting about all her children and wringing her hands pleading with them to be good. We all know the boy with the knife needs to be institutionalized or imprisoned and Mom can either help that happen, or continue to be an unwilling enabler.
Thank you for your kind attention,
Sincerely,
Your former reader,
Chip xxxxxx
September 30, 2018
Wow. This deserves a post all on its own. BRAVO!!!
I just wrote to the Times, including the two email addresses Jessica provided. I may copy yours and send it separately. This is brilliant.
See my reply to Diana below. Try the Guardian as a replacement.
Wow, what a letter, Chip! Good work. I continue to agonize every time I see the monthly autopay of $8 going to the NYT. Cancel, or not? Damn. Still paying...
Jess, now that you've canceled: If you see an article but can't access it, just email me and I'll get you a guest article link, in all likelihood pronto!
Eric that's wonderful thank you!
$8????? I am paying $30 to $40 per month!
Just cancel your subscription and then you can immediately reply to one of their ads to subscribe for $8, maybe even cheaper.
I did just that! Meanwhile a fellow local Dem who is a retired journalist gave me heaping suggestions for alternatives. I felt overwhelmed and then decided to get the cheap NYT. Which is not making enough of the point about their irresponsible journalism.
And today they are STILL hammering on Biden's age! What is WRONG with this country? And that goes for Maureen Dowd, whom I will never forgive for how she disparaged Hillary non-stop.
Subscribe to the Guardian! I love them!
Have a retired journalist friend who gave me a whole bunch of suggestions, too many for me, and I do read the Guardian occasionally. She said they are a bit too biased towards the left. None of them are perfect. Best to read several but my time is limited so I need to pick one and live with their imperfections.
What I did was re-subscribe to the NYT at half the price I was paying. I hope I made a point with the NYT, they really shocked and disappointed. I like the NYT comments section and have really learned a lot from that feature over the years.
That letter says ALL the things. I’ve felt this way about the NYT over the last 6 months. It’s been eating away at me and I’ve considered cancelling my subscription. (I type this while I sip coffee from my *Biden* Dark Brandon mug, where Biden’s sunglasses transform to a glowy red color when a hot beverage hits it. I love that he snatched that stupid meme from maga and reinvented it for his campaign swag 😎. I’m re-focusing my $ toward donations to candidates that are doing the work and give a s***.
This is outstanding, wow you are an excellent writer. Doesn't seem the NYT listened at all.
Thank you for the idea to send a card to Rep. Al Green. He signed a hospital waiver to go to the Capitol! What a dedication to public service and the people. I was originally going to write “I wish we had more representatives like that.”but I realized I can take action to help get others like Rep. Green elected.
Yes you can! And thank you!
I wrote again to the the individual in the News Department at the NYT with whom I had one email exchange, and copied the two journalists that Jessica submitted a copy of her LTE to:
Aidan:
Today Jessica Craven announced that she had finally canceled her subscription to the NYT, and submitted the following as an LTE, and am trying to direct it as well to Michael Scherer and David Halbfinger:
I’m writing as a subscriber to say that your reporting on the Hur report yesterday bordered on journalistic malpractice.
Your coverage largely ignored the fact that Biden was fully exonerated and instead harped (in a headline you’ve thankfully since changed), on the “political nightmare” of the partisan attacks on his memory. You framed your coverage as ‘analysis.' The reality, as Popular Information’s Judd Legum swiftly pointed out, is that "stories like this are the story.”
What can the New York Times be thinking? Trump shows clear signs of cognitive impairment. You regularly give him a pass. President Biden is considered by all who’ve interacted with him—including his political enemies—to be sharp and capable. The Hur report was written by a former Trump associate; it was a political hit piece and the Times bought into it with zero journalistic scrutiny.
I have to ask again, do your editors WANT a Trump presidency? Because that’s what your misleading, biased, and hysterically one-sided coverage will bring us.
History will not be kind to the Times for its relentless attacks on the one man capable of saving us from dictatorship. Shame on you.
I agree with her.
I read the first 14-Pages of the Hur report, and the NYT reporting appears to have been written with the following as guidance: "How can I report this in the most damaging way possible for Biden?"
I implore you to help correct the course of the News Department.
We are just asking for a lack of severe overcorrection in the misguided effort to appear "balanced" to the far-right.
Regards,
Gary
Wonderful, thanks Gary!
Thanks, Gary!
Among other and many wonderful things today, Jess, thank you posting the idea and address to send a handwritten card to Rep. Al Green. Since my best intentions are not always realized, I called his office to express my appreciation. A kind person, Claudia, took my call and my (emotional) message of gratitude. It was a lovely exchange. If anyone else is inclined, Rep. Green's office #: (202) 225-7508.
And, TY for sharing T Harrington's 'call to action!' It was liberating to make even a modest contribution today, as a gesture of support of our GREAT President Biden!
Yay thank you, Jean!
agree agree agree!!! have the note in hand and will call the office too- thanks for the phone number. Sent some $ to the President as well.
I am so glad you're encouraging letters to NYTimes. I write regularly, several times a week, about their egregious, prejudicial coverage. Also to WaPo but less often. We need to flood them with letters daily, because every day in small ways and large, they are at it. It's the drip, drip effect that adds up to depressing people, depressing activism, adding to hopelessness and despair. All bad. I have a dilemma though -- I also feel like giving up my subscription but then I wouldn't be writing these letters, alerting others I know about their version of "disinformation". I have a group of friends and family who are interested when I give examples that they don't notice because they've grown so used to it.
Just another little fact about the as usual sensationalized coverage of Biden. He gave his depositions right after (I read the next day after) he returned from his Middle East visit, not long after the Oct 7 attack. A strenuous trip during a perilous and difficult time. Who wouldn't be tired, distracted?? When people I talk to start talking about how old he is, I remind them of things like that trip (overseas flights, non-stop meetings with heads of state in a war zone) and on the evening of return addresses the nation to report. I know people half his age who complain about jet lag for days! We need to keep reminding people constantly about reality.
Lately the NYT HAS been very depressing and hopeless, and for me I had resigned myself to it as I trusted them so much I didn't realize they were gaslighting me, like a manipulative parent or partner. Always considered the NYT to be the highest quality newspaper in the country. Maybe they were at one time but nothing stays the same.
Like when a best friendship goes sour. You stay because of the past good history, not realizing that the friendship has changed and is not working in the present.
This is why it's sooo important to have a variety of news sources and political resources--and a variety of friends and acquaintances.
100% agree with all of that!
My advice to those in the pro-democracy coalition:
Cancel subscriptions to legacy media, stop watching cable, cancel most podcasts, stop listening to legal analysts (who vary from pandering to consistently wrong).
Focus on direct action to save democracy (as Jessica details daily).
For me, there is only 1 choice: voting up and down ballot for Democrats to stave off fascism. There are no opinions or reporting that will change my voting plans.
Not voting or voting for 3rd party candidates are not valid options. I'm disgusted with the choice I have, but I won't be the one who allows the hell of fascism to further spread.
Thank you!
I just wrote a "Thank You" postcard to Rep. Green, bumped up my monthly contribution to the Biden-Harris campaign and added an extra one-time contribution as well.
I vote for North Carolina
My letter to NYT
I recently cancelled my subscriptions to your "once" storied newspaper because of your hopeless bias against president Biden while you look the other way on the majority of Trumps failings. I'm tight with a nickel but I started this subscription it as I thought you were a force for good during the Trump years and it was civic duty to support that effort.
Yesterdays over the top frontpage frenzy of your Biden ageism was a perfect example of why you have lost my business. 5 articles on Biden's age . One article on Biden's verbal gaffes where deep into the article you finally mention that Trump makes them as well, but they don't matter! The writer says no one is questioning his sharpness. As we say in the country, that is pure BullSh*t ,and here you are perpetuating that. If the NYT was remotely even-handed you would be daily tearing into and featuring Trumps word salad of incoherent thoughts and exposing the foolishness of his nuance-less proclamations. But you aren't. I don't know if you are lazy or just greedy for Trump to be back, hopeful your business will grow. Are you trying to butter him up so if he is elected he won’t come after you with a red-hot poker? Good luck with that. Just ask Rudy how its going bowing to Trump. Please wake up and change course. Maybe I'll be back. In the meantime I have redirected my funds to people who seem to understand the stakes and what's going on - Hubble, Cox, Craven, and the Guardian.
Please wake up - we need your voice helping our country's and kids’ future, not destroying it.
Ben P
SO GOOD! Thank you!
You are an amazing inspiration. Many many thanks for your tireless and effective work. I suggest your Substack to people all the time. Its so uplifting to be in this fight with leaders like you.
Thank you, Alexandra. I so appreciate your being on this team with us.
Yes!!! You read my mind - I will be sending the same message to my newsletter community this week: work the program not the problem. Thank you!!
🙌🙌
“OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.”
So I imagine I’m not the first to borrow these words, simply to say, ‘right back at you,' Jess! Truly!
Awwwww THANK YOU
Hi, Jess. As we look ahead to maintaining the Senate, there’s a disturbing development in true-blue MD. Don’t know if Trone or Alsobrooks will prevail in the (D) primary, but it appears he/she may be facing former Gov. Larry Hogan in the general. We haven’t had an (R) Senator in decades.
However, Hogan (a seemingly ‘rational’ anti-Trumper) tends to draw from across the spectrum and - assuming he takes the (R) primary - will pose a hefty challenge for whomever seeks to replace reliable, retiring Ben Cardin. Might want to keep our powder dry, and volunteers/donors at the ready for such a development. Just a heads-up. Meanwhile, warmest thanks for your tireless efforts! Sharon Dorsey, Ocean Pines MD
I saw that yesterday. Womp womp. More work to do.
We need a project to expose Elise Stefanik for who she is and a campaign to get the word out not only in her district in northern New York but nationally as well. Can you help to pull together the truth about her such as her words on the House floor on Jan 6 and what she has been saying recently. Did she have a role in the House debacle over the recent impeachment vote.
Not sure I have the bandwidth but believe me if she's the VP pick others will do it.
Wrote two letters to NY Times. Their coverage has been shameful. Thanks Jessica for all you do.
Thank you, Dianne!
True, but it felt so good to write. If you want a newspaper with superb online presence, live reporting, incisive journalism, well executed investigative work, beautiful photographs, and good politics please consider subscribing to the Guardian (US edition). After a long search, I finally found a good newspaper.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/mar/09/guardian-wins-daily-newspaper-of-the-year-at-the-press-awards?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other