Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on July 22, 2011 @ tonymacklin.net.

Page One: Inside the New York Times is a sometimes fascinating, unsettling, and informative look at a venerable institution that has to cope with a rapidly changing world.

Can it survive a brave, new world in which information and misinformation strike instantly like electronic lightning bolts that flood the marketplace?

For many generations the New York Times has been the citadel of knowledge for many readers, and a purveyor of misinformation for others.

As a movie devotee I always was unhappy that the Times' movie critic Vincent Canby was ensconced for 24 years. Canby was a middlebrow -- often mediocre -- reviewer with little original insight.

One was better served reading Dwight Macdonald, Manny Farber, Pauline Kael, John Simon, Andrew Sarris, Molly Haskell, et al., rather than the ordinary Canby.

And, of course, most of all, James Agee. Agee and Canby don't belong in the same library.

The sports page of the Times was uninspired. I grew up in Philadelphia, and I was better informed and vitalized by reading the sports coverage of the Inquirer (Philadelphians call it the "Inkwire"), the evening Bulletin (long vanished), and the tabloid Daily News.

I didn't know until I saw Page One that the Daily News was facing bankruptcy. But it's still staggering on. Sports columnist Bill Conlin is being inducted this year into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Tastykake, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Daily News all facing bankruptcy. What a revolting development.

The world is changing. It's a bottom line world. And the bottom line usually dumps staff and quality. They don't add to the money. As one journalist says, "No way you can make a profit with investigative reporting." So, out goes substantial investigative reporting.

Emphasis on the bottom line has drastically changed the world of education -- often now just the world of training. I was a Liberal Arts graduate, and spent much of my career teaching Liberal Arts at a university. It always amused me when people referred to the real world; they were just inhabitants of a different world, not a real world. Their reality often was more illusionary than mine.

But now the alumni magazines from both those universities don't seem to know that the Liberal Arts exist anymore. You'd think both universities were now business schools. Maybe they are. Most of the time, they certainly act as though they are.

In 2011 there is a rampage for instant gratification and untruthful reality. In recent Nielsen ratings for July tv, there wasn't a single drama or comedy on the list of the top 20 shows among ages 18-49.

It was "reality" shows and amateur talent shows. The program Big Brother appeared 3 times in the top 7. Three different nights in one week it was among the seven highest rated. Big Brother -- that's really ironic!

In this environment, who cares about newspapers? Much contemporary communication doesn't need a 26-letter alphabet. Seven letters might suffice: I, OMG, LOL.

In Page One: Inside the New York Times, director Andrew Rossi and his co-writer Kate Novack try to stress the human equation. They capture an institution with human faces and human spirits, still struggling to maintain its humanity and excellence.

Rossi is lucky to find an engaging figure to use as a constant throughout his film -- investigative journalist David Carr. Carr has crankiness, dash, and personality as the featured Times' journalist. He is a survivor of many of his own personal failings, so he speaks with credibility of the Times' attempts to survive its failings.

If Carr is the fallible knight of Page One: Inside the New York Times, the crude dragon is real estate mogul and media-bulldozer Sam Zell, who is all business and bluster. He and his company Tribune Corporation have trampled newspapers across the country.

I try to utilize the options that modern media offers. I'm able to find a great deal of information and enlightenment.

But I still affirm institutions that keep their excellence and some integrity -- institutions that educate. The New York Times is one of those.

Page One: Inside the New York Times is full of pages of texture and depth.

But I'm afraid in contemporary society, too many people don't even know there is a page two.