Comment on Belmont Club"Thirty"

The NY Times has been slowly and more recently more quickly circling the drain ever since Abe Rosenthal was forced out as Managing Editor in 1988. Pinch Sulzberger succeeded his father in 1992 and instituted a regime of aggressive politicization that could be considered a prototype for what Obama is doing to America. Rosenthal was finally and unceremoniously ejected from his column in 1999. Part of the shift between Rosenthal's Times and Sulzberger's has to do with issues of sexuality. Rosenthal did not see the homosexual agenda as being an essential component of inclusive Civil Rights reform. Abe Rosenthal was a Liberal in the solid Times tradition of his boss Punch Sulzberger and columnist Scotty Reston. He was high minded, patriotic and rigorous in his devotion to standards. He was devoted to New York City and the working and middle classes and their aspirations. Pinch Sulzberger along with columnist, former theater critic, Frank Rich and Editor Bill Keller has transformed the paper into something far more strident and narrow in its perspective.

The paper was always liberal, when the editorial page endorsed Eisenhower the reporters hung a banner across the newsroom proclaiming their support of Adlai Stevenson. The paper, despite the Duranty episode, was also far more scrupulous until recently.

I miss the NY Sun.