In an effort swimming in desperation, the brass at the liberal town crier to the nation is laying down the law by putting a superficial collar on the editorial staff when it comes policy regarding social networking posts. The Times, enduring a massive decline in audience over the last decade, has faced a gauntlet of critics for controversial reporting tactics and obvious biased content, which has predominantly reared its ugly head in the political arena.
According to Fox News, the newspaper’s executive editor, Dean Baquet, sent a memo to employees Friday outlining updated guidelines for employee conduct on social networking portals. Included in the message was this telling statement, filled with arrogance and a sense of entitlement, “Many of our journalists are influential voices on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. The voices of our readers, listeners and viewers inform and improve our reporting.”
As humans are not unfeeling robots (yet), there will always exist a bias when reporting news, as the business model of the industry is facilitated by controversy and debate. The audacity of Baquet to even attempt to quiet the thundering reputation of the paper as a leftist sounding board, is laughable, inane and on another level disturbing. Why don’t violent protesters spend an hour handing out flowers and engaging in random acts of kindness with police and small business owners, before tearing apart a downtown corridor in a hate filled rampage of incessant destruction?
Apparently, Baquet has contacted officials at the Fox News channel and requested that on air conduct should include unreasonable and unctuous rants, in reaching out to a more diverse audience. As the old saying goes, “Just because you say it, doesn’t make it so.”
There is little doubt that the new rules at the Times, will have little or no effect on the demeanor of the staff or the polarizing content spewed through print or a twitter account.
Read the full Fox News article here.