Reporters at the NY Times believe their editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal is a petty tyrant who produces boring, doctrinaire output that rarely has an impact on the national debate.
Even as the New York Times has laid off reporters to cut expenses, the editorial page staff has expanded. That has led to some bad blood at the paper. According to an investigation into the situation by the New York Observer, most of the bad feelings are directed at Rosenthal who controls the paper’s editorial page.
“He runs the show and is lazy as all get-out,” on unnamed staffer tells the Observer. Another criticized the content of the editorial page saying “They’re completely reflexively liberal, utterly predictable, usually poorly written and totally ineffectual.” None of the Times’ staffers quoted in the piece spoke on the record out of fear of possible recriminations.
Several staffers confirmed that Rosenthal has a particular penchant for the word “should.” One source claims, “Rosenthal himself is like a petty tyrant, like anytime anyone on the
news pages uses the word ‘should’ in their copy, you know, he sends
nasty emails around kind of CCing the world.”
Another focus of Times’ staffers ire is columnist Thomas Friedman. A former Times’ writer tells the Observer, “He hasn’t had an original thought in 20 years; he’s an embarrassment.” The same former staffer adds “He’s perceived as an idiot who has been wrong about every major issue for 20 years.”
One anonymous critic lambastes the Times for lack of diversity. The individual, who declined to even be quoted because she still works at the Times, indicated that of 32 people who are columnists or part of the editorial board, 26 are white and 23 are male.