NYT High Gas Price Op Ed Fest!
If a gathering of crows is called a "murder," what do you call ten New York Times Op Ed pieces on high gas prices? A derrick of… no, I won't say it. Luckily, the Times only provides McNuggets for their "Is Your Tank Half Empty or Half Full?" editorial agglomeration. So… Pajama Life: Nicole Belson Goluboff, author of “The Law of Telecommuting,” says telecommuting rocks! Fuel for Inequality: Robert R. Reich says poor people are harder hit by rising gas prices than rich people. What the Green Bubble Will Leave Behind: Daniel Gross looks forward to driving a plug-in electric hybrid charged by a wind mill in his driveway. Ghosts of the Cul de Sac: Allison Arieff says high gas prices will kill the suburbs (so much for Gross' driveway). Goodbye to the Great American Road Trip: Michael Paterniti says fuck that shit. Tax Brakes: tax the Hell out of driving. I mean, the feds should give tax credits for NOT driving. Be the Prius: Tom Vanderbilt recommends hyper-miling. Or is that eco-driving? Psychoanalysis by the Gallon: Viennese scribe Annaliese Rohrer is, gasp!, on the subway "more often than I normally would choose to be." The Light Stuff: Jamie Lincoln Kitman (a car guy!) believes Detroit should be, sorry, build, smaller cars. Hair-Raiser: Karen Karbo loads us with this jewel: "Until [bicycle] helmet hair becomes universally chic, we will never be free of our dependency on mom chauffeuring us to the mall." (Her mom chauffeurs her to the mall?) So, what did we learn?
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The New York Times remains one of the best newspapers on the planet. But every newspaper needs eyeballs and buyers, which means figuring out what readers want and giving it to them. The public is bipolar, careening between periods of pleasure ("My house is worth $8 bazillion! I have a 143 inch TV! Everything is awesome!") and panic ("My house has lost 130% of its value! I had to pawn my TV! Everything sucks!!!"). The paper needs to tap into that sentiment in order to sell papers, which in turn feeds the spiral, whether upward or downward. The NYT is as guilty of that as is everyone else. I would love to see a study that shows whatever connection there may be between the tone and degree of mainstream news coverage and economic cycles. My guess is that newspapers, magazines and network TV news tend to be lagging indicators, that they are way behind by the time that they get around to emphasizing a story, both good and bad. All of which means that you can't use them to see the bottom of the cycle. By the time that they get around to reporting it, the recovery will be underway.