Now in paperback comes the epic biography of the Ochses and the Sulzbergers, the families that have owned and run “The New York Times” for more than a century. of photos.Amazon.com Review
This mammoth history of the dynasty that created and controls The New York Times is as epic in its scope as is the role of the newspaper in America. Like any good epic, this story is filled with its fair share of personal ambition, disappointment, competing heirs to t… More >>
The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times
“The Trust” tells a story most literate Americans almost know by heart. There is nothing — absolutely nothing — new here. Yet the reviews have all been misleadingly complimentary so that the myth of the smug, somewhat stupid NYTimes can go on. It is being beat badly these days by any news service on line. Reading the front page of the Times these days is like reading a monthly magazine ten years ago. The paper uncovers nothing new and the stories, offering value added interpretation, are boring.
The book does bring to light one aspect: Arthur, Jr., current publisher and pooh bah, is incredibly and dangerously dumb. Looks to the charlatan business expert to give him what he so sorely lacks in brains, experience, and a legitimate education.
Rating: 1 / 5
The only positive comment one can make about this sorely disappointing excavation of the Sulzbergers and their newspaper is that it’s written in fluid, clear prose. That’s it! This is quite surprising given the credentials of these two supposedly fine journalists; they did a wonderful job excavating another newspaper dynasty — the Binghams. But this time, little insight is offered; instead, the reader is loaded down with gratuitious gossip. Historic and psychological contexts are shabbily rendered. One can’t help but wonder if Mr. Jones, who comes from a newspaper dynasty himself, albeit of a much smaller scale, was not dealing — negatively dealing — with his own issues in this book. The Sulzbergers, particularly, Arthur jr, a brilliant, progressive, and humane publisher, and deserve better.
Rating: 1 / 5
It is not surprising that this book’s major revelations have not had greater circulation given the nature of family ownership of the vast majority of the biggest media conglomerates in the country, including the massive Gannett holdings of all forms of media all over the world, the enormous Newhouse “out-of-the-shtetl” holdings of not only papers, but magazines, book publishers and electronic media, the Washington Post, and its TV stations, etc., but you would think that some of them would be discussed a bit more than zero. Unknown in the US is any coverage of what the rest of the world classifies as the “Jewish conspiracy” of media dominance in the US. It appears daily in the major media in the Islamic world as the reason for US support of Israel and the reason for jihad against the infidels. It also explains much of French, German and British hatred of the US, long before GW Bush showed up. This book covers some of this, but not much, and is one of the reasons it does not get more stars. But the book has some great insights such as the following.
Did you know that Punch Sulzberger viewed the current publisher, his son “Pinch” Sulzberger’s positions on the Vietnam War to be treasonous because his son said he would cheer on the death of an American soldier over a Viet Cong in Vietnam in a face to face fight? Do you know that the majority of the editorial positions at the Times are held by militant homosexuals, and that one of the editorial writers at the Times is married to a member of the Massachusetts Supreme court who cast the deciding vote on the issue of legalizing gay marriage in that state but never revealed his affiliation in his many columns on the issue? (The Times’ own ombudsman, Daniel Okrent, recently said that the Times’ coverage of homosexual issues has crossed the line from reportage to advocacy.) Do you know that the Times is a “publicly held” company, but the family has prevented any kind of modern corporate governance with its stranglehold on its preferred stock while at the same time the paper screams about corporate transparency at every other corporation in the US? And that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to “The Trust” that guarantees the succession of the male heir to the throne. A corrupt American version of British primogeniture in kingly succession to the Time’s monarchy.
But this book also shows why the Times has become a shadow of its former self, is beset by scandal after scandal such as the Jason Blair forgeries (which occurred after the publication of this book) and has resulted in the gradual decline of a formerly great paper. While newspapers are probably doomed in this century, just as the town criers before them, as they are replaced by the internet and cable television news, you can find out why The New York Times is in its death spiral by reading this book. Unfortunately the authors were reluctant to get into the business consequences of the loss of credibility of publications such as the Times with mainstream Americans, but this is still a very worthwhile book. Unfortunately the billions of dollars sucked out of the unsuspecting shareholder of the Times never gets to read about the corruption and moral bankruptcy of current Times management, but this book would be a good place to start.
Rating: 3 / 5
Other than some family lore, there isn’t much new in this book to anyone familar with the history and culture of the New York Times, and what’s new isn’t especially interesting. It values density over insight. It’s remarkably devoid of journalistic analysis. It is weak on business analysis. As biography, it’s a snooze. As journalism, it’s a thumb-sucker, like one of those overwrought stories they run on the day after Labor Day, when there’s nothing better in the hopper and lots of space to fill. I could put it down, and did.
Rating: 2 / 5
THE TRUST is an enjoyable piece of writing, from beginning to end. It would be difficult to soldier through its several hundred pages if Tift and Jones were poor. The only aspect I found disappointing is that the book is more about the family than the paper. Of course, the book is billed as a history of the family. However, I felt it focused almost obsessively on the political in-fighting and other family crises that beset the Ochs-Sulzberger clan. That aside, THE TRUST is still the best portrait of the New York Times available today.
Rating: 4 / 5