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 [F] New York Times on the Web Forums  / Science  /

    Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.


Earliest Messages Previous Messages Recent Messages Outline (11730 previous messages)

lchic - 04:18am May 17, 2003 EST (# 11731 of 11735)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

The New York Times

Unfit to print

May 15th 2003 | NEW YORK From The Economist print edition

Crisis management for a top media brand

QUALITY control problems can wreak havoc with any business, especially when a reputation for high quality is a crucial ingredient of its brand. Ask the New York Times, which is having to deal with its own version of Ford's dodgy Firestone tyres, and Coca-Cola's Belgian taste troubles.

The glitch in question is Jayson Blair, lately a fast-rising star on what is widely regarded, not least by itself, as the world's leading newspaper of record, exemplified by its slogan, “All the News That's Fit to Print”. Alas, it turns out that his college degree was bogus, and much of the acclaimed reporting he did, according to an internal Times inquiry, appears to have been invented or pasted together from the reporting of others.

The New York Times provides extensive coverage of the scandal.

To the credit of Times journalists, some had given early warning about Mr Blair to their superiors. But corporate whistle-blowing often fails to do the trick (remember Enron?). It certainly could not halt the rise of a young black journalist at a paper which may have allowed its celebration of “diversity and opportunity” to cloud its judgment.

How much damage Mr Blair has done to the newspaper's brand is unclear. In a four-page exposé that may have struck many outsiders as self-absorbed, detail after detail was disgorged. Mostly, his offences seemed to consist of what journalists call “colour”. However, the Times confirms that the Justice Department is taking an as yet unspecified interest. Rivals of the Times were withering. The upstart New York Sun disputed the claim by the Times that this was “a low point” in its 152-year history, offering in evidence its past celebration of the virtues of Stalin and the democratic principles of Fidel Castro.

This has come at a bad time for the Times. Its circulation fell by 5% in the six months to the end of March. It attributes this, mystifyingly, to “the difficult year-over-year comparison”. Yet in the same period, in New York's fiercely competitive newspaper market, the tiny Sun and the tabloid New York Post—each notably keener than the Times on the war in Iraq—have enjoyed strong growth.

In the past year of business scandals, the Times has not shied away from making tough calls, including criticising a lack of accountability of bosses for corporate failures. The executive editor, Howell Raines, won plaudits after being appointed two years ago and quickly guided the paper to seven Pulitzer Prizes. Yet Mr Raines's apparently close relationship with Mr Blair, and the paper's prolonged failure to unearth a pathological liar within its midst, has raised questions about what other “low points” might yet emerge. After Mr Blair's failings were made public, Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the Times, said “let's not begin to demonise our executives—either the desk editors, or the executive editor or, dare I say, the publisher”. Other troubled corporate titans would no doubt conclude that the Times is finally getting religion.

http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1784805

lchic - 04:28am May 17, 2003 EST (# 11732 of 11735)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Rupert Murdock said he would improve the figures for The Post - this may be happening.

The NYT could claw back it's home town by inserting a 'NYcity' pull out.

That the NYT fell off 6mths prior to Iraq may fit in with the failure of the NYT to put 'both sides' wrt Israel-Palesting ... a strategic political failing picked up worldwide as folks everywhere were referred to as 'antisematic' ... and raced for their dictionary -- WHAT! HOLD ON THERE!

lchic - 04:36am May 17, 2003 EST (# 11733 of 11735)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Top Cockies meet NYT staffers

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/15/business/media/15PAPE.html

lchic - 05:11am May 17, 2003 EST (# 11734 of 11735)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

F O R D ~ TEAMsters

"" These engineers didn't have the luxury to deliberate. As soon as Ford chairman William Clay "Bill" Ford Jr. gave the go-ahead, the team was set up in a low-slung, nondescript building in suburban Detroit, a stone's throw from the Rouge River—the same stream that flows past the Fair Lane estate Henry Ford built after making millions on the Model T. Bill Ford's stiff challenge: Design a 21st-century production-ready version of the GT40, one of the fastest and most successful racecars ever, and do it in a record-breaking 16 months.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/auto/article/0,12543,449837,00.html

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