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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| NY Times journalist wants you to know he is dropping all barriers |
| 2014-01-03 |
| Nicholas Kristof writes his first column of the new year stating he is dropping his middle initial "D" from his byline. Personally I think if we all dropped our middle names from our bylines, the world would be a better place. An early candidate for the dumbest column of the year, newspaper division. Tough competition. Via Weasel Zippers If you look closely at my Times byline, beginning with Thursday's column, you'll notice something odd. Well, actually, you probably won't notice it. Thanx for the 411, Nick. I've knocked out my middle initial for the new year. I acquired it in my byline because as a college journalist at The Harvard Crimson, we were all encouraged to use full names with middle initials. In the fall of freshman year, I wasn't going to argue, so I became Nicholas D. Kristof. And I have been, in the Times and in my books, ever since. The middle initial adds a bit of authority and gravitas, and when you're a 25-year-old Times reporter covering global economics and hoping to be taken seriously, that's very welcome. And here all these years, I thought it would be concise writing and the fair presentation of facts in a news story that would add "gravitas" (whatever that is). Silly me. His whole writing career has been an effort to overcome the gravitas provided to him by his middle initial... So why am I dropping it? First, I don't think it buys any clarity. As far as I know there isn't a single other Nicholas Kristof anywhere in the world, so I'm unlikely to be confused with Nicholas G. Kristof or Nicholas S. Kristof III. Yeah, why confuse your 11 readers with a single alphabetical letter. Nick, I get the sense you regard your readers as a buncha morons, which is what liberals, by definition are. More broadly, I think in the Internet age, the middle initial conveys a formality that is a bit of a barrier to our audience. I would be afraid to tell a narcissistic writer for the New York Times any of my objections to his slanted writing, because of a single initial. And I guess that applies to everyone else, as well. Now, without the letter I can fearlessly tell Nick he is a liberal baboon. It feels a bit ostentatious, even priggish. And if anyone know priggishness and what is ostentatious, it's a NY Times writer. If my aim in my 20's was gravitas, now I want to reach people and connect with them, and I wonder if the stuffiness of the middle initial isn't a little off-putting. The NY Times by the very nature of its reporting and location is by definition off-putting. I doubt if it makes much difference, frankly, but at the margin I think that we're moving to a kind of journalism that is more casual, more informal, more personal, and a very formal byline seems as out of place as a three-piece suit in the newsroom. Speaking of which, when I started at the Times in the business section in 1984, I wore a business suit and the middle initial was a nice accoutrement to pinstripes; now I wear an open collar, and I don't need the middle initial any more than a necktie. He's a rebel and he'll never, ever be any good. I bet the ladies swoon whenever you enter the newsroom now, huh Nick. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #19 Y'all need to give this boy some credit. For someone from his background, with his resume and spouse, to figure the whole new media thing out in only a decade and a half is extraordinary. The kid is crumbling the cookie and throwing away the mold. Tubing the Rubicon. Throwing out the old rusty battle-axes and decking the hall with flatscreens. Mortarboards for surfboards. Recasting type into fishing weights, by golly. Goldman Sachs boo! Bold new hacks yay! Civis-nuntius sum. Demotic moniker... check! Bunny slippers... check! Hipster trilby... check! All systems are go. The new journalistic order slouches over to Port Authority to bum cigarettes from regular folks. Kristof our savior is born! Can't wait for his book raising serious questions about the 2008 campaign in, uh [fingers], 2027. |
| Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 2014-01-03 16:52 |
| #18 Per the stoning picture... I'm sure he'll write about how we shouldn't judge other cultures and other races (like Islam - yea I know Islam isn't a race...). And all cultures and races are equally valid. And didn't the Joooes use stoning a long time ago so they did it first! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2014-01-03 16:19 |
| #17 Here, get your arse to work and write about this: |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-01-03 15:30 |
| #16 Yo Nick, No one cares. |
| Posted by: Greang Bucket7278 2014-01-03 14:50 |
| #15 CGI Federal was chosen by God knows which criteria and hired; Townes-Whitley and his Princeton classmate Michelle Obama are both members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-01-03 14:31 |
| #14 Don't forget - I believe several states have used CGI for their work and they has a long history of doing dogsh*t sh*tty work. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2014-01-03 14:24 |
| #13 Dropping all barriers? Ok, here's a story you can sink your teeth into: Michelle Obama's Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company that earned the no-bid contract to build the disastrous Obamacare website. Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of '85, is senior vice president at Canadian company CGI Federal, which earned the no-bid contract to build the so far costing $678 million Obamacare enrollment website at Healthcare.gov. Townes-Whitley and his Princeton classmate Michelle Obama are both members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni. Toni Townes, Pricenton '85, is a onetime policy analyst with the General Accounting Office and previously served in the Peace Corps in Gabon , West Africa. George Schindler, the president of the CGI Federal's Canadian parent CGI Group, became an Obama 2012 campaign donor after his company gained the Obamacare website contract. Sooooooo........... Let's see if we can connect the dots here ... 1.) No American companies considered for building Obamacare's website; 2.) CGI Federal was chosen by God knows which criteria and hired; 3.) CGI Federal was given a NO BID contract worth $93 million; 4.) A top executive at CGI Federal was a Princeton classmate of Michelle Obama; 5.) Previous company's experience was building a gun registry for the Canadian government; 6.) CGI Group was fired by Canadian Government for overruns that cost Canada $100 million; 4.) CGI has continued its practice of overruns as the Obamacare enrollment website has gone from $98 million to costing U.S. tax payers $678 million, and it's still going up! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-01-03 14:05 |
| #12 Like all modern "journalists", still writing like he's hoping to gt that "A" from the lead socialist perfesser. |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2014-01-03 13:41 |
| #11 I think that we're moving to a kind of journalism that is more casual, more informal, more personal And much, much less professional. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2014-01-03 10:50 |
| #10 I doubt if it makes much difference, frankly Nick, the only truthful statement in the piece. I'd go with that line and skip the rest. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2014-01-03 09:46 |
| #9 Does talking about middle initials show my ass as big? |
| Posted by: sw ks. volFF 2014-01-03 09:13 |
| #8 F you Dickless D. Pissedoff. Why don't you drop the women's underware instead of the D? |
| Posted by: Airandee 2014-01-03 08:06 |
| #7 Hey! He got paid for that schlock, didn't he? But if I were his supervisor, I'd tell him I wasn't going to pay for another one like it! |
| Posted by: Bobby 2014-01-03 07:51 |
| #6 D. - stood for: 1) Democrat s) Duh 3) Douchebag |
| Posted by: Frank G 2014-01-03 07:43 |
| #5 Can I have a selfie or two with that ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-01-03 06:29 |
| #4 "a kind of journalism that is more casual, more informal, more personal, and a very formal byline seems as out of place as a three-piece suit in the newsroom". I think perhaps this is what the Duck Dynasty patriarch was warning us against...being attacked by a piece of fruit. |
| Posted by: Spereting Tingle4064 2014-01-03 06:25 |
| #3 Jeesuz, what a pompous asshole... I'll bet he got his ass kicked a lot growing up. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2014-01-03 00:34 |
| #2 No matter how he writes it, Nicholas D. Kristof or Nicholas Kristof or Nick Kristof = Shallow Buffoon |
| Posted by: George Alowishus Hatrack III 2014-01-03 00:19 |
| #1 Why stop there, Niki? |
| Posted by: KBK 2014-01-03 00:14 |