An email to The New York Times’s new Public Editor two days ago at 3:15 a.m.:
Monitoring the sudden departures of New York Times editors is akin to keeping an eye on the reviewing stand at Moscow military marches during the Kremlin days.
You must check to see which commissars are inexplicably among the missing the same way that the late New York Times Moscow Bureau Chief Harrison Salisbury used to do.
Hey, where is Arthur Brisbane? Why is he gone? How was he replaced as Public Editor No. 4 with Public Editor No. 5 in the post-Jayson Blair Era?
Pretty rapid turnover, wouldn’t you say?
Is our website (hollywoodhighlands.org)
Alone in asking for an explanation of what is going on at The New York Times’s Public Editor’s desk?
From yesterday morning’s mail:
To John Walsh at hollywooddems@gmail.com:
Subject: Re: SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE OF NYT PUBLIC EDITOR ARTHUR BRISBANE JR.
Mr. Walsh, Mr. Brisbane fulfilled his two- year term, and had a final column on Aug. 26, explaining that it was the end of his tenure. There was also a news story in early May in The New York Times that Mr. Brisbane would be leaving in August.
Best,
Joseph Burgess
Office of the Public Editor
The New York Times
Note: The public editor's opinions are her own and do not represent those of The New York Times.
My response:
Dear Mr. Burgess: Who are you? I never sent you an email! What is your job description? Who do you report to? Think of this email as a customer complaint. What is your background? Who hired you? Who at The New York Times handles complaints concerning the Office of Public Editor?
My parents, both born and raised in Manhattan, taught me it was rude to address someone in a business letter without starting off by introducing yourself.
Is your boss, who stands as the latest in a long line of NYT Public Editors, so overwhelmed by the crush of her new duties that you, Mr. Burgess, have been tasked with easing her complaint letters burden.
Will she last the apparent two-year term of office for NYT Public Editors without collapsing under the enormous weight of what the NYT Publisher expects her to accomplish?
The departed Mr. Brisbane severely damaged his journalistic reputation awhile back when he wrote a piece defending the NYT editorial decision to erroneously announce online the death of Congresswoman Giffords.
Remember?
Please send me a copy of the new Public Editor's Curriculum Vitae. Thank you.
Of course, the new Public Editor will never see this letter. Your job is to protect her from all dissatisfied NYT paying customers, also known as “readers”!
Is the Office of Public Editor a two-person operation? Does the public have any participation in the frequent selection of a new public editor? A reporter at the NYT has told me: “Now that the heat's off on the Jayson Blair thing, the only reason there's a Public Editor is vestigial “Political Correctness. Nobody here pays any attention.”
Mr. Walsh may be contacted at hollywoodhighlands.org
