Word: bagdikian
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Today no one accuses the News or the Journal of shilling for management or anyone else. Ben Bagdikian, the press critic who once castigated the papers even more vehemently than Black, went back for another look recently and concluded: "Obviously, a revolution has taken place." In fact, the papers now routinely criticize the chemical corporation's influence on Delaware, where 10% of the work force is employed by Du Pont. Senior Vice President Irving S. Shapiro believes that much of the staff "is so anxious to demonstrate independence that the reporters try to find ways to paint the story...
Mild Joke. Press Critic Ben Bagdikian recently focused attention on the paper when he ranked the Eagle (along with the New York Times and Paris' Le Monde) as one of the world's three "great newspapers" (TIME, Aug. 28). Washington Post Editorial Writer Stephen Rosenfeld, an ex-Eagle staffer, thinks that Bagdikian was "charmed as an outsider to discover that there exists in the Berkshires a paper that appeals to the New York Times reader." Eagle Managing Editor Kingsley ("Rex") Fall says: "We're proud of what we do, and we hope we're getting better...
...first serious incident occurred last March, when Post executives gritted their teeth and published a long piece by Bagdikian sympathizing with charges by black staffers that the Post discriminated against them (TIME, April 10). The next month Bagdikian took part in a symposium in which he defended the Post against accusations of racist coverage. But he also suggested that economic boycotts were the most effective way of influencing newspapers. Post Executive Editor Benjamin Bradlee interpreted this as disloyalty, demanded Bagdikian's resignation, then tore it up after regaining his calm...
...Bagdikian saw it, things were never the same afterward. Some of his critical articles were spiked. This month, however, the Post published his story scalding the paper for running a picture that seemed to support charges that the U.S. was bombing dikes in North Viet Nam. The photo was five years old, a fact that the Post conceded a day later in a correction. Bagdikian felt less welcome than ever after that...
When asked why Bagdikian was leaving, Bradlee replied, "Ask him. I don't honestly know. It sounds crazy." The parting seemed both sad and ironic. The Post is more willing than most publications to confess its sins, and Bradlee is seeking another ombudsman. Bagdikian concedes the Post's relative virtue, but told TIME: "There's a feeling here that I should be loyal to the management. When they first put me in this job, they assured me that my first loyalty would be to the readers." By returning to free-lance criticism, he will now have...