Arthur Sulzberger Jr., center, publisher of the New York Times, is applauded by reporters and editors in the newsroom after being thanked for his commitment to journalism by Executive Editor Bill Keller, off camera, who had just announced the Times had won five Pulitzer prizes this week.
Many or most of you sometimes think that some of the press is unfair, either about you or someone or something that particularly interests you. Sometimes you are right.
The latest example of big-time press unfairness comes from a slick monthly magazine called, of all things, Vanity Fair.
In its May issue, Vanity Fair has a critical and grossly overplayed and overwritten 12-page spread about Arthur Sulzberger, boss of The New York Times. Some credulous quotes:
• At age 57, he “gives the impression of puerility.” (Webster’s says puerile is juvenile, childish, silly).
• “His mind wanders, particularly when pressed to concentrate on complicated business matters.”
• “He has steered his inheritance into a ditch.”
Sulzberger and I are professional acquaintances but not personal pals. He is a Tufts University Northeasterner. I am a University of South Dakota Midwesterner.
But I admire many things in the Big Apple, The New York Times and the Yankees among them.
In the interest of press fairness, I reject Vanity Fair’s hatchet job on Sulzberger. Sure The Times has financial problems in this recession, as do many newspapers and most other businesses. But he has maintained the high quality of his product, including winning five Pulitzer Prizes this week.
Sulzberger also has kept his newspaper’s rank as the third largest in the nation, behind No. 1 USA TODAY and No. 2 The Wall Street Journal.
Vanity Fair’s article about Sulzberger is both vain and unfair. It should remind us that while the First Amendment guarantees a free press, we in the media must make sure it is a fair press.
That’s the most important thing that should be taught in high school or college journalism classes.
You consumers of news must insist on that fairness and understand the difference.
Al Neuharth is founder of USA TODAY.
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Feedback
“Al has absolutely nailed this one. Arthur Sulzberger has kept The Times a great newspaper despite the collapse in advertising. He has put the mission first, which Vanity Fair seemed to disparage.”
- Alex S. Jones, director, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard, and a former New York Times media reporter
“Sulzberger deserves huge credit for maintaining the Times’ commitment to ambitious, critically important journalism during an excruciating time for the newspaper business.”
- Rem Rieder, editor and publisher, American Journalism Review