Just a few minutes ago, we got the following email from Robert ("Call Me Bob") Christie, the NYT's new senior vice president for corporate communications, refusing to comment to The NYTPicker regarding our latest story on the NYT's multi-millionaire health-care blogger, Uwe Reinhardt.
"We are not going to comment given your failure to disclose your identity," Christie wrote us. "As you understand, disclosing your name and affiliation is one the of basic principals (sic) in journalism. I hope you understand our position."
Whether he comments for The NYTPicker or not, we think Christie is entitled to a dictionary for his new office. It's unseemly for the nation's best newspaper to misspell words. It's one of the basic principles of journalism!
Christie's email is reprinted below:
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23 comments:
Now THAT is NYTPicking!
Love it. [And had to remove previously posted comment due to typo not spotted during nonexistent readthrough ...]
Now that's funny.
I dig this blog, but this particular post is ridiculous.
Bob learns another valuable lesson in journalism: take a deep breath and collect your thoughts before firing off an email. ("one the of"?? you totally made him mad!)
(I mean to say that the discussion of the spelling error is ridiculous, or at least not worth mentioning. The NYT claim regarding anonymity, on the other hand, is rich stuff.)
i'm beginning to think you guys should have created a fake name but then again that may not be ethical.
The more they say it's wrong for you to be anonymous, the more I think it's right. They really should talk to you.
But they're too mad at you.
Re: 'i'm beginning to think you guys should have created a fake name'
You mean like John P. Manley? (Thank you, Ted Bernstein).
Oh, come on guys, this one is just petty and ridiculous. Besides, a spokesman is hardly a journalist.
This is interesting. Is there a Wall Street Journal Picker too?
How much does the Times pay people to make belittling comments on every NYTPicker post? And where do I apply?
Jeff Greco @ 9:39pm:
Once this guy started lecturing NYTPicker on the principles of journalism, he opened himself up to this sort of ridicule. He was fair game.
Isn't Christie the same PR guy who made fun of the WSJ editor earlier today?
Principal gives the reader the chills, memories of the Principal's office
This is petty. Your site, in my opinion, should aspire to more than this (and most often does).
My principle always sed that I if I dont qwit mispeling words Ill never get a job as a NY Times joornalist.
for shame Nytpicker, it's an email. I am an NYT journalist and I have dyspraxia, and cannot spell. But I can write, and that's what matters.
Ummm... leaving the spelling aside, WHAT IS BOB CHRISTIE SMOKING?! Google("New York Times"+ "on condition of anonymity"+) = 2,420,000 hits!
to Anonymous @1:37,
Why shame on nytpicker? Is it really too much to ask that the chief spokesman for the New York Times knows how to spell? Presumably you have editors who fix your mistakes. Maybe Christie needs one, too.
Actually, if I can be a bit NYTPicky here, this is not a matter of bad spelling. The word was spelled correctly. The problem is that the word chosen was the wrong word. That is not a spelling problem, it is a usage problem ( a more serious journalistic sin). And, the usage problem cannot be excused due to dyspraxia. Also, why hasn't anyone mentioned the syntax problem? Or, are we giving a pass here due to the author's dyslexia? Let's give the guy a break. After all, he's only the New York Times spokesman and probably suffered from an attack of dyspepsia after accidentally ingesting one of his bromides.
Too bad it is totally culturally inappropriate to obsess over gesticulation and throat-clearing interspersed into the spoken word the way you get all worked up over text.
The misspelling doesn't bother me much, except as a Freudian slip.
But I think it is an interesting assertion that identifying yourself is a fundamental principle of journalism.
OK, Thomas Paine, wrote anonymously. And the great "New York Weekly Journal" published its authors anonymously.
But I can see it would be very annoying to give an interview to a stranger, though not impossible.
I hope I spelled everything correctly. I am not going to proofread this comment!
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