Gawker: Washington times

Hey, What Better Time To Call "End Of History" On The Conservative Movement!

Moe — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:51:34 EDT

“I mean, just, the conservative elites ... it’s actually an intellectual blockage ... that keeps them from supporting this stuff." That is National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru enlightening today's Observer as to why conservative lobbyists don't promote his "pro-growth pro-family" tax initiatives, but why don't we just get hacky and apply it to another sad development for thinking conservatives broken today by the Observer: the New York Sun, a conservative New York daily that secured its initial funding in 2001 from a hodgepodge of investors united most visibly by an abiding love for Israel, has announced it will close at the end of the month unless it secures new funding.

Many things have changed since the Sun was founded: lead investor and Chicago Sun-Times owner Conrad Black went to jail, oil went above $100 a barrel, Israel went to war with Lebanon, Bill Buckley died and someone named "Julia Allison" gave birth to something called "microcelebrity," and the embarrassing unbridled jingoism unleashed by the events of September 11 greased the proverbial wheels of a prodigious bounty of lousy deals that would result mainly in death and disillusionment, the latter of which would eventually, mercifully, find itself directed at the Republican Party and the conservative movement that, in addition to God, granted it so much power. But here is what has not changed: conservatives do not really read, which is to say, of course conservatives read but not things that are like, long*, and those who do tend to compartmentalize the pastime as something rather far removed from their ideology, and if that's not the case, well, they would seem to be sufficiently alarmed by the defilement of their once-optimistic "movement" to be directing their information demands at suppliers of cruder, less ideologically-refined sources than the Sun. Of course, this is all blather and speculation; I am merely stating what I believe to be the nature of business conditions in the niche. But it is not just the Rupert Murdochs of the conservative media ideologically softening these days; the nuttycon Washington Times would seem to be on a bid to "mainstream" itself, while the talking heads and bloggingheads running such outlets as the National Review seem primarily to be brokering in new cute phrases: Sam's Club Republicans! The Sourpuss Vote! We've been Palinized!
We think you'll agree, if there's anything the industry needs right now, it's de-Palinization.

*Yeah, case in point: NONE of those guys actually read the Bible.

DC's Moonie 'Times' Gets A Little Less Nutty

Pareene — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:17:59 EST

The Moonie-owned right-wing-allied Washington Times has changed its editor, and now its styleguide. Some of the seriously loaded code languge is no longer the Times standard! So long "homosexual 'marriage'"! Farewell "illegal aliens"! We thought we'd be in the cold ground before the Washington Times recognized the term "moderate." Alas, times change. White supremacist-sympathetic editors-in-chief get ousted. Times newsroom email, via CQ, after the jump.

Subject: Style changes
All:

Here are some recent updates to TWT style.

1) Clinton will be the headline word for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

2) Gay is approved for copy and preferred over homosexual, except in clinical references or references to sexual activity.

3) The quotation marks will come off gay marriage (preferred over homosexual marriage).

4) Moderate is approved, but centrist is still allowed.

5) We will use illegal immigrants, not illegal aliens.

Thanks.

Patrick

Media Bubble: What's Left

abalk2 — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:30:52 EDT

• The Nation takes on the Washington Times: "The vast majority of people who read it don't realize that this paper is in bed with bigots and white supremacists." Funny, we thought that the vast majority of people who read it were bigots and white supremacists. [Nation]
• Michael Massing thinks financial pressures are affecting the press' ability to do its job. [ETP]
• Tony Judt thinks it's because liberals are pussies these days. [LRB]
• Either way, things aren't going well financially for the liberal pussies at the Times. [AP]

Krucing Off: Less Reputable Papers Weigh In

Pareene — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 09:00:23 EDT

Leave it to the nutjobs at the Washington Times to put this whole business into perspective:

"Time magazine has already come out to say their sources are still talking to them," Mr. Jones said yesterday. "We should watch whether the Plame case inspires prosecutors to start going after reporters in a wholesale way. We may also see more conditional anonymity now where journalists tell sources 'I'll protect you if I don't go to jail.'?"

There has been some source-related fallout this week, however. Andrew Krucoff, a Conde Nast researcher, was fired Tuesday for leaking an internal staff memo to Gawker, a Manhattan news and gossip Web log. He was escorted from the building.

Valerie Plame to Andrew Krucoff in 500 words. Now that's how you pad a story.

Lasting effect of Plame case on press murky [WT]

Earlier:
Media Bubble, Bursted: Krucoff Fired