Ace New York Observer reporter Michael Calderone, who had the goods on The New York Times' forthcoming hit job on Rupert Murdoch last week, surveys the resulting wreckage of the Times' credibility.
Unfortunately, Calderone can't articulate what's obvious, because it's technically unprove-able: That the Times has been motivated by strong ideological and also corporate animus against Rupert Murdoch, which led them into a two frenzy of printed News Corp-bashing.
So what propelled The Times to flood the zone by inaugurating a special, multi-bureau reporting project, helmed by Times managing editor Jill Abramson, that would bring lead writer Jo Becker, London bureau reporters Jane Perlez and Raymond Bonner back into the mix?
In answer, Times executive editor Bill Keller asked rhetorically, in an e-mail: “Are you serious?”
“Why would we take a close journalistic look at a powerful, controversial figure who is about to acquire one of the crown jewels of American journalism?” he continued. “ … [That’s] our job. The pieces were well reported, utterly fair, and fascinating.”
And as to whether The Times was serving its own corporate interests in—and here was where Mr. Murdoch’s people flattered him—trying to undermine a deal that would put Mr. Murdoch at the helm of their great competitor, The Journal, company spokesman Catherine Mathis offered dryly:
“The New York Times always maintains a strict separation between its news report and its business interests.”
One can sense Calderone's skepticism, leaking through the pink pages of the NYO.
And TCG will repeat it: Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger, who turned a giant media empire into an ever-shrinking media empire, has good reason to be jealous of Murdoch, who turned one newspaper in Australia into the mightiest media combine in the world--which looks to get mightier, as the deal over The Wall Street Journal moves forward.
And meanwhile, one should Bill Keller to the dishonor roll. By choosing to get in the middle of this discussion, with Calderone, Keller is no doubt earning big brownie points with Pinch, but in defending Sulzberger's vendetta, Keller is undermining his own personal credibility as well.
