Earlier today, The NYTPicker posted an item about the curious (and highly imbalanced) quoting only residents of Park Slope and Prospect Heights residents in its page-one story on the mayoral election. We also wondered why the NYT's metro section seems so obsessed with the Park Slope neighborhood, devoting two straight Sunday Metropolitan section cover stories to the topic.
Now we know why, and it's the saddest and most obvious of reasons. It turns out the NYT's Metro editor Joe Sexton was born in Park Slope, and has lived there his entire -- or right nearby -- his entire life!
On page 213 of former NYT editor Douglas Frantz's 2001 book, "Celebration U.S.A.," the author wrote:
"Joe Sexton lives a few blocks from the brownstone where he grew up, in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn."
[UPDATE: According to a tipster, Sexton now lives in the Flatbush-Ditmas Park neighborhood in Brooklyn, on the other side of Prospect Park from Park Slope -- less than two miles away.]
[UPDATE: According to a tipster, Sexton now lives in the Flatbush-Ditmas Park neighborhood in Brooklyn, on the other side of Prospect Park from Park Slope -- less than two miles away.]
We've emailed Sexton to see if he feels his lifelong loyalty to Park Slope has influenced the NYT's ongoing and obsessive coverage of the gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood. The NYT has covered Park Slope incessantly in recent years, but the latest crush of stories and references to Park Slope has been especially egregious.
We can't wait to hear how it's all a big coincidence!
4 comments:
Well, duh!
Back in the 60s and 70s the same thing happened with coverage of the upper West Side, as if it was the only place in the city where people did anything noteworthy. And lo and behold, where did midlevel to slightly above Times editors and writers then live if they were touched by hipness, or at least wanted to play the game?
If you're going to gaze at a navel, pick one close by.
has anybody at this blog noticed the incredible sudden lurch to the right today thursday and yesterday wednesday on the nyt web site ????
holy wah !!! all i see is reich wingers ( bachmann, armey, beck, etc ) in the photos and all i see is coverage of gop crap !!!
and very notably did NOT see any coverage whatsover of NY-23 !!!!
wow !!!
did beck/limbaugh/ailes/murdoch threaten the nyt or something ????
Re: "and very notably did NOT see any coverage whatsover of NY-23 !!!!
wow !!!"
You missed quite a bit of coverage, starting with:
" The New York Times
November 4, 2009, 4:16 pm
BlogTalk: And Now, a Word From the North Country
By Maria Newman
The hardest fought race yesterday for the political right was no doubt the one to decide the congressional representative in New York State’s 23rd District. . . . "
It's easy enough to use the site's Search function.
More laziness on 11/11 ... City Room blog, an article about the McLaren stroller recall. What better neighborhood to go to than ... Park Slope! Surprise!
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