CMM June 12th, 2008
Hat tip to Metropulse for the article “The Couch Uncovered” and to Doug at Reality Me for the post and record of events included in ”Knoxville ‘The Couch’”. Also, kudos to Michael Silence for writing the editor of the NYT.
Let me begin by saying that I am not a Knoxville native. My only Knoxville credentials are a graduate degree from UT, almost two years of residency, and actively reading Jack Neely’s Secret History articles. For the record, I’d be interested in Jack’s thoughts on “The Couch” as Knoxville’s unofficial historian. From my perspective, I wasn’t really insulted by the nickname, but maybe I don’t know any better.
That being said, there are two elements of this literary incident that do not surprise me. First, I would not be surprised by a NYT writer taking literary liberties with certain facts. In my opinion, the “gray lady” has moved away from its 98 Pulitzer-prize-winning history as the current leadership struggles with competition from new media. When a Knoxville Tennessee native, Adolph Ochs, took management of the New York Times int he late 1800’s, he gave the paper a new slogan– “All That’s Fit to Print.” With this new mission, the gray lady took on international prominence and became a literary force. Not only did the NYT generate award-winning articles, it also utilized cutting edge technology to grow circulation and appeal to a broader audience.
Over the past few years, I’ve heard many conversations criticising the editorial and managerial decisions of the NYT. It seems the slogan today is “Anything We Want to Print.” In 2004, then NYT public editor Daniel Orkent wrote a piece that criticised a certain liberal bias in the paper. He remarked on the papers deliberate “cosmopolitan slant” towards certain social issues. To be honest, this makes sense given the location of the paper, but this bias seemed to increase over the past few years and influence other categories. The New York Times has also struggled with plagiarizm and fabrication (ahem, Couch-gate). In 2003, Jason Blair was forced to resign after his writing was found to be at fault in both.
The modern newspaper faces a much different competitive landscape than twenty years ago. Now we live in a world of 24-hour news coverage provided over the television and Internet. This news medium, probably more accurately described as opinion, entertains people with the Bill O’Reillys, Keith Obermanns, and Chris Matthews of the world. More frightening than the commenatary of these talkings heads is the fact that many people seem willing to accept their opinions as factual news. At the end of the day, newspapers and all traditional print media struggle to keep up with this “I need it now” mentality. Subscriptions have been shrinking and circulation costs have been increasing.
This brings me to the second element of this incident that doesn’t surprise me– bloggers. Blogs have cut into traditional media. Bloggers have a chip on their shoulder, similar to any upstart stuggling to get respect. Lets face it, even legitimate bloggers are the Rodney Dangerfields of the world. Brilliant writers struggle to get an income because “they just don’t get no respect.” Fortunately, we’ve seen a change in this dynamic over the past few years as many bloggers have been brought onto newspaper staffs and many newspaper writers have developed blogs. Regardless, local bloggers can be very protective of their territory, and with our cultural pride, Knoxvillians aren’t any different. If the validity of the nickname is a stretch, the writer was very naive in thinking it would be accepted as common knowledge. Now if one of the Knoxville blog community had come up with the new nickname, then it would have been different…
That being said, I’m proud of our little community for its cultural pride and sense of community. Likewise, I’m appreciative of the NYT article and the many positive things it points to in this great city (although, I could do without the “I’ll Take My Ball and Go Somewhere Else” response from the author). I was also pleased to see local newspapers and local bloggers working in tandem to unveil this mystery. Again, maybe Jack Neely will weigh in next week on the legitimacy of “The Couch?”
Of course, every notable incident involves a conspiracy theory. Maybe this whole thign was planned in advance in order to spur linking and discussion (double hat tip to Doug at Reality Me and hat tip to Glenn at Instapundit).
