Would you pay $49.95 to watch women wrestling in mud? I did this morning, and it was well worth the expense. I get the New York Times Online and until a couple of weeks ago all the features were free. Then, as some of you have no doubt discovered, the NYT's columnists started to have only their opening sentences on free display. To get the full columns of Krugman, Rich, Dowd and the others you have to pony up $49.95 a year's subscription to Times Select.
I held off until today when the Times nailed the sale with Dowd's column titled, "Woman of Mass Destruction" and her ominous opening sentence, "I've always liked Judy Miller".
Miller has been the sport of a million stories and there was nothing much by way of startling revelations in what Dowd wrote, but in operatic terms it was as though Maria Callas had suddenly rushed onto the stage and slugged Elizabeth Schwartzkopf.
Moral: Don't ever take Maureen Dowd's chair at a White House briefing.
Lightweight stuff, but entertaining as all get out to this old fart!
Update:
More on this scintillating subject from TPM Cafe:
Maureen Dowd's remarkable column ("Woman of Mass Destruction") takes us into the far reaches of the sausage factory, offering up the rare sight of one Times staff member all but calling another a liar in public. Dowd's tale of being bounced from her rightful seat in the White House briefing room by a big-footing Miller is sure to elicit leering shouts of "cat fight!" from the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. (Note to Geraldo: Judy didn't nudge Maureen; she made a firmly worded request.) But her main point is deadly serious. At the end of the day, all a newspaper has to sell is its credibility. Any reporter who can't or won't play straight with her colleagues, her editors, her publisher or the public shouldn't be allowed to work at The New York Times.
Then they go and get all serious on us. Make some good points, though.
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