Roger L. Simon

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June 30th, 2006 12:42 pm

Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one – Part 403012

Just in time for Fourth of July fireworks, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. – the ‘heir dysfunctional’ of the Sulzberger family who is currently running the NYT into the ground – is engaged in a cat fight with the opinion section of the WSJ. The intellectual bankruptcy of Sulzberger rivals only what he seems to be doing to his company.

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12 Comments

1. Fausta:

If “Pinch” didn’t like what the WSJ was saying today, wait until he reads van der Leun’s expert opinion.

Jun 30, 2006 - 1:50 pm 2. StevenT:

Sulzberger and Keller are doing to The Times what Jim Dolan and Isiah Thomas are doing to the Knicks.

This is what happens when you hand off a once proud institution to an ill-prepared scion.

Jun 30, 2006 - 1:51 pm 3. Havoc:

StevenT:

“This is what happens when you hand off a once proud institution to an ill-prepared scion.”

It’s actually really BAD estate planning. Kind of like leaving the Cinncinati Reds to (Hitler started out good, & High Priced N—-rs) Marge Schott.

The reason the Randolph Hearst Estate still owns Many publications, 300,000 acres on the California Coast, (they gave the Castle to the State of California due to cost of upkeep) 5,000 + head of cattle, Wynnthune Estate up on the McCloud River Wilderness, …

… is that none of the kids actually runs anything. They have a Board of directors that oversees everything and hires and fires executives, including editors.

Sulzbergers parents should have had the foresight to Pass it on to a Dynasty Trust and “Hire a professional”.

There’s a reason for the catch phrase –

“Shirtsleeves to Shirtsleeves in Three Generations”

Jun 30, 2006 - 2:49 pm 4. Connecticut Yankee:

My three right-thinking Feline Americans are offended by being implicitly compared to a Sulzberger. The NYT hasn’t been an acceptable litter box liner in this household since 2002.

Jun 30, 2006 - 4:14 pm 5. DanM:

Fausta,

From your link – As the poet says, “Once a bear is hooked on garbage, there’s no cure.”

We all know the cure, but half have lost the way. Roger still buys the Times – don’t you Roger?

Jun 30, 2006 - 6:51 pm 6. Roger:

I don’t buy any newspapers, DanM, whoever you may be. I read them online. With my current job helming PJ I don’t remotely have the time to read a single paper anyway. If I did, the Times would be down the list. The Financial Times is the most interesting to me at the moment from the point of view of gleaning information. But the Internet is of course the place.

Jun 30, 2006 - 9:02 pm 7. DanM:

“I don’t buy any newspapers, DanM, whoever you may be.

Why Roger, I’m not anyone (except to those that depend on me). My post was not an attack on you, just an illustration of those that support the Times empire…. I don’t have the artistic writing flair that you possess, my post was probably poorly constructed. I apologize if offense was taken.

But, do you subscribe(pay) to the on-line versions? If so, you support their agitprop. The cost of doing business, I suppose.

Then again, maybe this is indicative of the public discourse on the Times “issue”. It’s considered an attack if your accused of supporting them financially.. Could be good for PJM…

Jun 30, 2006 - 10:49 pm 8. Gary Rosen:

Roger, I must object to your reference to the “intellectual bankruptcy” of Pinch Sulzberger. Bankruptcy implies that at one time there was metaphorical money to begin with.

I went to high school with Pinch, and to put it kindly, he was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. To put it less kindly, he flunked out. If he had not inherited his position, he wouldn’t have gotten as far in journalism as Jimmy Olsen.

Jun 30, 2006 - 10:58 pm 9. Insufficiently Sensitive:

I see there’s another reason for the nobs of the Democratic party to be supporting the death tax.

Had the Sulzberger fortune been looted by the Feds as estate tax advocates would prefer, there would have been less chance for the decline in family abilities to be exposed by the rants of the latest (not greatest) generation.

Jul 1, 2006 - 8:05 am 10. Roger:

DanM, for the record I do not have a Times online sub either. PJM does a a sub to the online version of the WSJ.

Jul 1, 2006 - 11:16 am 11. Stace:

My dad helped found and was a longtime president of a fairly large company. The first chairman caused a lot of damage to the company when he hired his son to be president, so when my dad became president he implemented a rule that no offspring of board members or high level execs could be hired.

This was not a family owned business, but still a lot of people asked me why I didn’t work for the company. It was a good rule, and it certainly didn’t hurt me or my siblings to seek employment elsewhere.

On the other hand, the company I went to work for was Anheuser-Busch, and several generations of Busch family managers have made it the biggest beer company in the world. So, of course, there is no one perfect business model.

Jul 1, 2006 - 4:09 pm 12. ForNow:

Pinch flunked out of high school? I’d heard that he was rejected for admission to Columbia University. And I’d gleaned that he is indeed not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Well, it was fun when he picked fools like Howell Raines for chief editor and prodded and stirred the Dems into bad strategies time and again. Pinch, Howler, & Gail Collins, you had to think they were all Rove plants. But now Pinch is hurting our country.

Jul 1, 2006 - 10:31 pm

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