Monday, March 20, 2006

The New York Times’ Moody Blues…umm, make that Purples

 
Oh, joy. The gentle rain is falling on the unjust and those poor boys haven’t got an umbrella.

Power Line has a great picture from a recent New York Times cover on its Sunday magazine. It’s a photo of Mark Warner, recently the governor of Virginia and now a beginning runner in the long slog to the presidential primaries in 2008.

The Governor’s Maroon MakeoverThe picture makes former Governor Warner look like he’s laid out in his coffin. In what is reminiscent of Rathergate’s memo, this Warnergate photo has the experts arguing about whether this ghoulish shot of the Guv is deliberate or simply a technical mistake. Be sure to read the discussion at Power Line, including the Times’ explanation, and the differing opinions by photo experts. Given the circumstances, one could give the old gray doxy the benefit of the doubt — though you learn in reading the comments that the Times, lovely lady that she is, pays substandard rates to the photographers she hires.

Meanwhile, back at the tower, Moody’s is considering a downgrade of the Times’ credit rating:

Credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service said Friday it is reviewing the New York Times Co.’s A2 debt for a possible downgrade.

Moody’s said it has growing concerns about the company’s high financial leverage, deteriorating operating margins and weak free cash flow available for reducing debt.

In addition, Moody’s said it is concerned about intensifying cross media competition, including the Internet…

Memo:
To: The New York Times
From: The World

Hubris and mendacity will getcha every time.


Note: For a real dissection of an increasingly ugly creature, visit Bizzy Blog. They have names, dates, and crimes listed in detail – look at their post on what the Times did to the coal mine story. Biz also includes this cheery image, which — to my mind — is directly connected to the picture of Governor Warner. But that’s just my editorial spin on things.
Down and down we go, in a spin

You decide.

3 comments:

X said...

Ruddy-ell, he looks like he's from the 1970s... Is that what they were trying to portray? That he's an unreformed evil republican without dated ideas?

Or perhaps that he's camper than camp?

(OT RANT) Why oh why can't these google word verificaion thingies be a little less obtuse? It's very hard for the dyslexics among us to grep strings like "xuedhpg"... (/OT RANT)

Baron Bodissey said...

Archonix --

You realize that this bloke's a Democrat, right?

He's being undermined by the NYT because he stands in Hillary's way in 2008.

However, even so, they are probably trying to do exactly what you're thinking of...

Wally Ballou said...

The ex-gov shows up on a lot of people's list as the great non-Hillary hope for the party. There are probably elements at the NYT who would potentially support him, but only with their noses held. He is notable in Virginia for basically doing nothing except go back on his promise not to raise taxes, and thereby being able to take credit for improving the state economy (which in truth was profiting from the "wave which lifts all boats"), That act of political duplicity didn't hurt him in Virginia, and has made him a hero to Dem's whose only idea is more taxes. He and hs successor Democrat were elected in a red state and that has a lot of Dems (the ones who care about electability) dreaming about him. But he is way too conservative to survive the Dem nominating process for the top spot.

It is a strange picture, but with the best will in the world, you can't get away from the fact that he really is one strange-looking dude. He looks like he has Lincoln's acromeglia, and scary teeth to boot.

A more "normal" pic of the gov can be found at Governing Magazine which honored him as Governor of the year for - what else? - raising taxes.