… ass? Merkins aren’t made for that purpose.
Thus Ezra Merkin’s attempt to cover his ass in the Madoff matter by having his sister write a New York Times opinion piece minimizing his involvement was doomed to fail.
Yet the real question is how she managed to get the piece published at all. It’s rank conflict of interest, an attempt by a protective sister to twist the facts of her brother’s culpability.
Gawker and the Jewish Journal, among others, have expressed amazement at what looks to UD like simple corruption on the part of the NYT. Daphne Merkin’s a longtime contributor to the newspaper, no doubt a friend of some on the editorial board, and they’re doing a friend a favor by letting her try to influence the many lawsuits currently being filed against her brother.
It’s disillusioning for poor UD. She never thought of the New York Times as a provincial newspaper.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:56PM
a "review" of Daphne’s newest book – http://tzvee.blogspot.com/2009/03/book-review-daphne-merkins-astounding.html
…enjoy.
March 27th, 2009 at 6:13AM
‘Provincial’? Well, the Times is always ready to publish stories which feed the beliefs of its Upper West Side subscribers. They missed Duke Lacrosse scandal for months (the blog http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/ is in structive here, as is Johnson’s book). The growing disconnect between what they were reporting and what was happening here in DC with the snipers was finally resolved when Jayson Blair was found to have made it up from a bar in Brooklyn. They put 41 stories about a national groundswell against the Augusta golf course which refused women as members into the paper, it fizzled, there was no national groundswell. Moving back in time, Walter Duranty pretended things were pretty much okay in Ukraine, when Stalin was starving them out. There keep being rumors that women at the Times have gotten their promotions on their backs, that for Pinch Sulzberger it is good to be the king (I never heard this rumor about Daphne Merkin). So, provincial? Yah, I think so.
It’s indispensable, we subscribe. But it’s not dependable. And editors and bosses ride hobby horses there.
March 27th, 2009 at 7:49AM
All newspapers are provincial, though some provinces are more cosmopolitan than others. If there’s a break-in at the Watergate, you want to read the Washington Post; if the World Trade Center is destroyed, see the New York Times.