Monday, November 9, 2009

NYT's Bill Keller Blasts "Armchair Experts" Again. Except This Time, Keller Forgets That He Was The Armchair Expert.

NYT executive editor Bill Keller loves to regularly stick it to the "armchair experts" who attack his newspaper.

Keller did it again this past week in his latest "Throw Things At Bill" speech to the staff, in which he said:

One of the armchair experts quoted by the public editor wondered why we don’t eliminate the Sports section. I’d like to be as clear as possible: none of those things is on the table.

But hey, wait a minute...that "armchair expert" was none other than Keller himself!

Here's the line from Clark Hoyt's recent Public Editor column to which Keller referred:

More radical moves, like dropping the sports section, have been rejected because they would undermine the quality of The Times or would not save much money, Keller said.

To be fair, it's entirely possible Keller made the comment while seated in an armchair.

We remembered the line so well because the Sunday morning it appeared, it prompted us to email sports editor Tom Jolly, to find out whether he'd heard anything about a plan to drop his section from the paper.

Frankly, we'd been struck by the fact that Hoyt had attributed the idea to Keller. The prospect of killing the NYT sports section would seem unimaginable, especially to the paper's executive editor.

"All I can tell you is that the idea was never raised with me," Jolly replied via email that morning, when we asked if anyone had ever mentioned the idea.

Ten minutes later, we got an unsolicited followup email from Jolly.

"Just to clarify: That would suggest to me that it was not on the table in a serious way," Jolly wrote.

That second email got us to wondering why Keller would have even brought up the notion of killing the sports section with Hoyt. If it wasn't on the table, why refer to it at all?

So we wrote back to Jolly with a couple of followup questions:

Do you have any idea why Keller would have mentioned sports to Hoyt, even as a move they rejected? "Rejected" implies that it was proposed. And the elimination of sports is the only "radical move" mentioned in Hoyt's sentence, attributed to Keller.

We don't want to make too much of this, if it's truly a non-story. But the thought that anyone at the NYT even entertained the notion of eliminating sports coverage was pretty shocking to us. Was it to you?

Jolly, clearly a courteous fellow, wrote us right back.

"We're in an environment in which all ideas deserve consideration, no matter how radical," Jolly said. "As you might expect, my own belief is that our sports section helps distinguish the NYT from the Journal, which is probably our chief competition going forward."

Good answer. We agree. And so, apparently, does the armchair expert.

4 comments:

Roberto said...

I'm imagining a New Yorker cartoon featuring a guy literally paralyzed by his inability to continue his lifelong habit of starting the paper at the sports section ...

What's Keller thinking of doing next? Killing off the Sunday comics?

Anonymous said...

First, I don't think your headline is accurate... "blasts"?

Here is Keller's 'blast':
"One of the armchair experts quoted by the public editor wondered why we don’t eliminate the Sports section"

Thats not blasting anything, unless you call any reference to an 'armchair expert' a blast.

I went ahead and read the Public Editor piece you're referring to .

The only mention of the Sports section and Keller is:

"More radical moves, like dropping the sports section, have been rejected because they would undermine the quality of The Times or would not save much money, Keller said."

The only reference to "armchair experts" is:

"Keller said: 'It’s a much tougher, more complicated decision than it seems to all the armchair experts. There is no clear consensus on the right way to go.'"

Have I missed the entire point of your post? Other than the slightly funny circular reference by Keller... which isn't exactly correct if you re-read it.

The Public Editor didn't quote anyone "wondering" about getting rid of the Sports Section. The Public Editor quoted Keller talking about that idea being dismissed.

So he mis-spoke, but not in the way you claim, so you've committed the same foul too?

Come on, you can and should be better than this.

-M

Anonymous said...

The thing I like the least about Keller is that he's always ridiculing others to make his points. Like in the speech, he attacks the CNN website. What for? Does it make him feel superior? And calling your critics "armchair experts" implies that only people who work at the NYT are privileged enough to criticize it. Maybe Bill should stop reading what the "experts" say and get back to work.

Horlix Noladim said...

There is a certain delight in skipping an entire section others live for, such as the NYT sport pages or gold trends in other financial media. One's irrelevant delirium is another's found time.