[Rhodes22-list] The Grey Lady

[Brad Haslett]

First, most people don't know the difference between news and an editorial
opinion.  The New York Times is good at neither.  And now for an interesting
twist-

Saviors of the Times

New York Sun Staff Editorial
February 14, 2008
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/71272

How's this for poetic justice? In the face of pressure from hedge fund
shareholders who think the New York Times Company is underperforming, the
management of the Times is turning to two directors it thinks will help turn
things around. "We are delighted that these two exceptional individuals have
agreed to be nominees for election by our shareholders," the company's
chairman, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., said in a release on Tuesday announcing the
news. "The skills, expertise and leadership qualities of these two nominees
will greatly benefit our Company during this time of tremendous change in
the media world."

So just who are these "exceptional individuals"? One, Dawn Lepore, served as
a director of Wal-Mart from 2001 to 2004. While Ms. Lepore was serving as a
Wal-Mart director, the Times was denouncing Wal-Mart for a series of
supposed sins. A November 15, 2003, editorial thundered, "This
Wal-Martization of the work force, to which other low-cost, low-pay stores
also contribute, threatens to push many Americans into poverty. The first
step in countering it is to enforce the law. The government must act more
vigorously, and more quickly, when Wal-Mart uses illegal tactics to block
union organizing. And Wal-Mart must be made to pay if it exploits
undocumented workers." It went on, "Wal-Mart likes to wrap itself in
American values. It should be reminded that one of those is paying workers
enough to give their families a decent life."

An April 11, 2004, editorial, also written while Ms. Lepore was serving on
the Wal-Mart board, warned, "the entry of such an especially tight-fisted
employer in a community compels competitors to whittle at their own labor
costs. That translates into lost jobs and smaller paychecks for everyone." A
June 25, 2004, editorial, also written while Ms. Lepore was on the Wal-Mart
board, criticized the company's treatment of women employees, writing that
plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the company had "put together a statistical
case that raises serious questions about Wal-Mart's commitment to equal
treatment."

The second new Times director proposed by management is Robert Denham. Leave
aside that the Council of Institutional Investors recommends that directors
with full time jobs should serve on only two other boards and that if Mr.
Denham wins a seat on the Times board, it will be his fifth board membership
in addition to his job as a law firm partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson. One
of those other board memberships is — wait for it — Chevron, where Mr.
Denham has been on the board since 2004. And if you think the Times
editorial writers have been tough on Wal-Mart, those editorials look like
valentines compared to the ones about the oil companies. The Times in a 2006
editorial faulted Chevron for its role in "the Greenpoint oil spill, an
underground spill covering 55 acres with an estimated 17 million to 30
million gallons of oil. The oil gathers in unseen subsurface reservoirs. It
mixes with ground water. It seeps constantly into Newtown Creek, coating the
waterway with rainbow sheens. It creates toxic vapors that could someday
threaten 300 homes and small businesses." Another editorial that year
asserted, "An oil industry already rolling in record profits does not need
more tax breaks" and complained of "industry greed."

That pretty much sums it up. When a director of an oil company tries to make
profits for his shareholders, he is accused of "greed." When a Wal-Mart
director tries to make profits for her shareholders, she is lectured about
being "tight-fisted." But when The New York Times Company's shareholders
start getting restless for profits, where does Arthur Sulzberger Jr. turn to
for "exceptional individuals"? Why, to veterans of the boards of Wal-Mart
and Chevron. When it is the Times that is hoping to make the profits,
somehow it isn't "greed" but, as Mr. Sulzberger put it, "skills, expertise
and leadership qualities." We couldn't have put it better ourselves.