(2009-01-05) — Although the financially-troubled New York Times today broke with tradition and began running paid advertising on its front page, publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said “the grey lady” would continue to run messages from the Democrat National Committee (DNC) on page one, above the fold, at no charge “as a public service.”
“The Times must maintain its commitment to serving as the paper of record, which sets the agenda for the mainstream media,” said Mr. Sulzberger. “The DNC has been a reliable provider of hard facts and hard opinions which have unobtrusively graced page one of the New York Times for decades. To start charging a fee to the DNC now, just because George Bush has run the economy into the ground, seems unethical, and a breach of the public trust.”
Mr. Sulzberger said budget cutbacks have reached every department of the Times, noting that he and other executives have curtailed travel on private jets, and switched to Sam’s Club Caviar in the executive dining room.
44 responses so far ↓
1 seneuba // Jan 5, 2009 at 9:53 am
Happy New Year! May God bless you!
2 JamesonLewis3rd // Jan 5, 2009 at 9:55 am
Welcome back, Scott!
“The Paper of Record” believed its own Madison Avenue branding and now the question is “‘Record’ what, exactly?”
3 seneuba // Jan 5, 2009 at 9:55 am
Scott,
We have missed you and have been praying that God would richly bless you.
4 beekabok2 // Jan 5, 2009 at 10:03 am
My local paper (indy Star) has been doing this for a few months and they have received numerous LTTE about it.
5 Kibi // Jan 5, 2009 at 10:07 am
He’s back!
Missed you Scott
6 gafisher // Jan 5, 2009 at 10:17 am
Good to see the “Open” sign back in the window, Scott!
Considering the Dems had to outspend the Republicans by eight to one for just a few percentage points in the last election I’m sure they’ll appreciate the NYT’s bailout effort. Unfortunately, unless and until they move to a better product the DNC’s overall prospects are pretty bleak.
7 camojack // Jan 5, 2009 at 10:17 am
I’m still waiting (with eager anticipation) for the NYT to go down in flames.
However, the dhimmis in Congrefs will probably bail them out, too.
Oh, and welcome back Scott! Happy New Year, too…
8 CalGirl // Jan 5, 2009 at 10:21 am
Boy, is that the truth.
Unfortunately.
But…Happy New Year all the same.
9 Ms RightWing, Ink // Jan 5, 2009 at 11:02 am
Advertising on the front page? Oh my garsh. I hope they don’t advertise ladies undies in the midst of hard news but with the scandalous stories of politicians I guess it will make little difference.
Scott, I can’t tell you how good it was to see your blog back in action. Sure glad they didn’t keep me in the local germ cage yesterday. Now my body feels so much better.
10 conserve-a-tip // Jan 5, 2009 at 11:08 am
Yippeee! Scott is back and in full form. Yep, the Grey Lady may be using front page advertising today, but tomorrow she’ll be using the “newspaper bailout” that just could be in the works by Congressional Dems. To me, the “newspaper bailout” is what you do when you have stinky fish guts left over from your recent fishing trip and you bail out the family by wrapping the leftovers in the NYTimes.
11 conserve-a-tip // Jan 5, 2009 at 11:10 am
And Yippee to see you posting MsRightwing, Ink. Are you feeling better?
12 Fred Sinclair // Jan 5, 2009 at 11:14 am
Scott, I thank God that He does answer prayers and you are back.
I never missed my ability to walk nor my left arm, until they were no longer usable. So too, I didn’t miss you until one day you weren’t there. It’s good to have you back!
13 woodnwheel // Jan 5, 2009 at 11:15 am
Welcome back, Scott! Now I can post again without feeling like I’m jumping in on the conversation way too late
A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and all my fellow Scrapplers 
By the way: Considering what high-end caviar is made from, I shudder to think what Sam’s Club caviar tastes like!
14 beekabok2 // Jan 5, 2009 at 11:57 am
Saw a vantriliquist (sp) on TV over the weekend and the dummy had a great defination for politics: Poli from the latin for many and tics as in blood sucking pests.
15 Ms RightWing, Ink // Jan 5, 2009 at 12:43 pm
conserve-a-tip
Doing better via a host of medications but this may be another long haul. Just happy not to be a Knuk, er Canadian.
Also I have no idea what the problem is for the NYT, Google plasters ads all over the news pages of Internet news sites
16 RedPepper // Jan 5, 2009 at 12:48 pm
“All the news that fits our template.”
Happy New Year, Scott. How was re-education camp?
17 Tinman // Jan 5, 2009 at 1:14 pm
When I saw I had an email from Scott Ott a smile came on my face. Welcome back.
I was going to say that a thrill went up my leg but I didn’t want to be disrespectful.
18 woodnwheel // Jan 5, 2009 at 1:41 pm
beekabok2: Since you added the “(sp)” I hope you won’t mind my saying that I think the word you were going for is “ventriloquist” — one of those Latin-based words that everybody knows but few know how to spell except walking (or rolling, as I’m a paraplegic) dictionaries like me
As for the definition of “politics,” I might be wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the ventriloquist you saw was Jeff Dunham. He’s got some good material. One of my all-time favorite dummies is “Achmed the Dead Terrorist.” He uses a little bit of language that wouldn’t be appropriate for a family-friendly site such as this one, but that routine cracks me up every time I watch it.
19 JamesonLewis3rd // Jan 5, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Much of today’s “journalism” is minus that ingredient of “public service.”
20 onlineanalyst // Jan 5, 2009 at 3:23 pm
My heart sings. Scott Ott is back, just as astute as ever.
Happy New Year to you and your family. May the avenues that you are pursuing provide satisfaction and reward.
In re to the NYT: Is the “paper of record” trying to recover its advertising losses from providing moveon’s General Betray-us ad for free or below the going rate? Soon the fish wrap will be cover-to-cover DNC talking points (if it isn’t already).
21 baragirl // Jan 5, 2009 at 3:59 pm
woodnwheel said ,”By the way: Considering what high-end caviar is made from, I shudder to think what Sam’s Club caviar tastes like!”
See the last line of #10 for you answer.
22 RepublicanAttackMachine // Jan 5, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Welcome back Scott and happy new year!
beekabok2 re:#4, I used to take the Indy Star, (or “The Indiana Lib” as I call it), but cancelled when Gary Varvel, (political cartoonist), became the last Conservative there.
It reminds me a lot of CNN when they had Glenn Beck.
23 baragirl // Jan 5, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I’m as restless as a willow in a windstorm,
I’m as jumpy as a puppet on a string…
It’s not spring fever and it’s not Spring
Scott is back!!
S’wonderful!
In case you forgot ,I’m really prettyold.
24 sojourner // Jan 5, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Welcome back, Scott! I hope that you had a nice vacation.
I’m looking forward to the day when the Times has been brought low enough to have to start charging the Dems!
25 boberinyetagain // Jan 5, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Welcome back Mr. Ott…indeed.
I hope you and yours had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Even trolls need a laugh!
26 RedPepper // Jan 5, 2009 at 6:21 pm
boberin: Holiday greetings to you also. Hope you had an enjoyable Christmas?
27 JamesonLewis3rd // Jan 5, 2009 at 7:00 pm
A good way for the NYT to regain their readership might be for them to release to the world verifiable certified photos of BHO’s original Indonesian birth certificate.
Well, it’d be good for a laugh, wouldn’t it? Or would it…..
28 RedPepper // Jan 5, 2009 at 7:38 pm
JL3 #27: Personally, I’d just like to see them restore the material they scrubbed from their website during the campaign … starting with the Nicholas Kristof blog entry that mentioned Barack Obama’s description of the Muslim “call to prayer” as one of “the prettiest sounds on earth … “
29 Darthmeister // Jan 5, 2009 at 8:37 pm
It was always my understanding that the whole front page of the New York Slimes was usuall;y an unpaid advertisement for the Demoncrat Party.
Told ya al Freakin’ and the Donks would find creative ways to steal that Senate election in Minnesota. Don’t look!!! There’s no one behind that curtain! Move along … move along.
30 Darthmeister // Jan 5, 2009 at 8:41 pm
BTW, I heard Russians thought the New York Times made the best toilet paper … after the Pravda, of course.
Welcome back from your sabbatical, Scott. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the armpits of your political enemies!
31 mindknumbed kid // Jan 5, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Darth, you stole my thought about the content of the front page of the NYT.
It seems like a bona fide Scrappleface piece by Scott Ott, but these days I’m not sure if he really exists…I fell for the Santa Claus thing a few decades ago. They made him seem to be so real too. But he must really exist, just look at all of these comments!
Alas, the world is so much prettier today…reminds me of when William J. Clinton was inaugurated. NOT!
32 mindknumbed kid // Jan 5, 2009 at 9:15 pm
re#29 - I’d like to see their explanation in court when qustioned about more votes being cast in some precincts than voters that signed in to vote. Perhaps there were some randy male ballots cast and some willing female ballots, apparently the gestation period of paper ballots is less than two months…
33 mindknumbed kid // Jan 5, 2009 at 9:22 pm
And when questioned about it too. Some things ain’t never gonna change folks.
Ms RightWing, Ink - Your good news allows me to smile again! OK, maybe that’s a bit disingenuous, but I am relieved you are feeling better.
34 Shelly // Jan 5, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all family and friends of our dear friend Scott, as well as all who post here. (I resisted the urge to fill this comment with “you knows.”)
35 Fred Sinclair // Jan 5, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Beekabok2 #14 It appears to me that God, long ago, looked down the corridor of time (though of course time is all the same to Him), and He warned us, right there in black and white what we should look out for and avoid.
The age of the Huns have passed along with the warning cries and shouts of the villagers “THE HUNS ARE UPON US!!!” Today and for awhile yet (for like the Huns, this too shall pass) our cries and shouts as Obama’s Civilian Security Force descend on our homes to confiscate our guns will be “THE LIBERALS ARE UPON US!!!
A cry and shout that should have been raised 60-70 years ago and every day since. It should have at least started when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began his version of a Government Bailout - that resulted in the Great Depression lasting at least 7-8 years longer than if the market had just been allowed to correct itself. (It is always 100% self correcting).
The folks of today are mostly too young to remember the poverty of the early thirties when Lawyers and other so called Professionals, with all their Ivy League Schooling were seen daily on street corners attempting to sell apples for two cents each (three for nickel) and what they didn’t sell that day was what their family had to eat that night. (they’re going to pry a lot of empty guns out of the cold, dead, unresisting fingers of our Conservative Christians who are willing to die in an effort to restore Liberty and Freedom to America.
At my advanced age of 71, I would be honored to be one of the first.
In effect, I believe God said, “The minions of satan are coming and here’s what they will look like;
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.” (Is.5:20-24 KJV)
36 conserve-a-tip // Jan 5, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Shelly: Re # 34 - it’s ok, we know that you know that when you know that you know, you know. You know?
Eat yer heart out Mr. Obama and Caroline!
37 Left Coast-Right Mind // Jan 5, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Ever since the “Anointed One” started talking about ‘change’ in his (or is that His?) campaign, I’ve been afraid of the concept. And now we’ve changed threads. It’s quite a bit less scary here, then what I believe to be coming down the pike. Glad to see that you’ve returned Mr. Ott, and that the extended sabbatical in no way dulled the keenness of your pen.
As for the Ol’ Gray Mare, who ain’t what she used to be, it’s just about time to put that glorified gossip rag out of our misery. With the motto, “All the news that prints to fit”, the twits that run that outfit are making a mockery of why they were given Constitutional protection in the first place. In fact, they may very well be violating my Constitutional right to a free press by worshipping at the feet of certain elements of our government that they are supposed to be ruthlessly investigating with staunch objectivity.
straw betterment: everything is better with beer…even…straw?
38 baragirl // Jan 6, 2009 at 12:03 am
LC-RM ,tis sounds as though the NYT is very close to becoming a Church,a Religion,and haven’t the Libs been telling us there must be separation of Church and State(Government)?Doesn’t this mean the NYT ’s is breaking the Law?
They have pictures of Obama in their building ,I’m sure.
prettyold
39 Left Coast-Right Mind // Jan 6, 2009 at 12:27 am
baragirl (prettyold):
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the NYT had portraits of Al Gore up as President from 2001 - 2005 and John Kerry from 2005 - Present. However, the entire floor of their building, that was dedicated as a shrine to Bill Clinton, has been extensively remodeled to pay homage to President-elect Barack H-word Obama by now. I guess such a grandiose expenditure would explain the financial straits that they’re mired in at present. It couldn’t be that there’s anything wrong with the news they manufacture…er, report.
40 baragirl // Jan 6, 2009 at 1:01 am
Hey if the folks who work at the NYT go around singing Gorepsalms,Clintoncarols,and Obamahymns, I am going to put in a complaint. this is egregeious mixing of (pseudo)religion and Politics. Oh , I guess that would be psuedo politics ,too.
41 beekabok2 // Jan 6, 2009 at 10:16 am
woodnwheel RE: 18 I have seen Jeff Dunam and he is indeed very funny. Actually, the guy I saw was Taylor Mason. He is a lot more wholesome and family oriented (i.e. Christian). Look him up on youtube
42 RepublicanAttackMachine // Jan 6, 2009 at 5:19 pm
LCRM re:#37, I fear the “Change” Obama brings to America will have the same “smell” as the “change” that new fathers and mothers learn to deal with for a few years!
43 Times Sells Page One Ads, Still No Charge for DNC : Pursuing Holiness // Jan 7, 2009 at 12:16 pm
[...] Read the rest at Scrappleface. [...]
44 puzzletop // Jan 8, 2009 at 11:04 am
Great to have you back Scott. God Bless you
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