We Spooked The Grey Lady!

Recently, the Grey Lady sent me a rather seductive email, inviting me to be a trusted commentator I thought the timing was a bit odd because one of my most recent comments had been purged. It was in response to a Harvard professor's column that we all have to expect to work past the traditional retirement age and that employers are going to have to keep older workers on payroll. I I wrote, "With all due respect, The New York Times needs to revamp its policy on op-ed contributors." I mentioned that some of its staff columnists and contributors are woefully out of touch with the real world. I wasn't the only commentator (some of whom I trust) who have posted similar items before.

OK, so I ticked off The New York Time and they deleted the comment. But the thing about inviting me to be a "trusted" commentator turned out to require my hooking up my comments to my Facebook accounts. I interpreted this is as getting more digital ink for the Grey Lady. That, too, is odd because I use Facebook briefly when I do. I just like to keep up to date on friends' birthdays and occasionally feed my account with what's happening (a new baby!) or to post a sympathetic comment on someone's woe. No, thank you.

Obviously, I wasn't the only one who thought the invitation was about as gratuitous as the one sent at the end The Razor's Edge to the dying snob who was miffed at not being included in a society party. A lot of people made it clear that they thought it was unacceptable to have their comments suddenly come under a new set of rules by someone who may or may not be qualified to judge things in proper prospective (meaning: intelligent readers who are perhaps more knowledgeable than the people who write articles and columns).

It turns out that our instincts were correct. We were not being paranoid at all. Someone referred to this as "big brother." Today, three days after having a new baby, I got to read the new comments format on my laptop instead of my smart phone and I don't like it a bit. Instead of "All Comments," "HIghlights" and "Readers Recommendations," we now have a choice: "All," "Readers Picks" and "NYT Picks." The timing for me could not have been better than to verify my initial feelings. The story I chose was the one on how the unemployment numbers fell dramatically. To paraphrase some comments, the Grey Lady is now a flack for the Obama administration by writing such stuff, that the numbers are outright bogus, that the article means nothing because well under 10 percent of those who got jobs got better paying ones and, finally, that this new format is nonsense.

Ouch! There hasn't been such decision-making since Bank of America decided to impose monthly fees on customers who had the nerve to use their debit cards. Perhaps the powers that be behind the Grey Lady (or Wizard of Oz) will learn from BOA and reverse its bad.