I sincerely hope Arthur Brisbane’s question of whether or not the New York Times should challenge “facts” (his quotes, not mine) is an art project. If not, there’s no more damning an article written that explains everything that’s wrong with traditional media.
Vanity Fair created a great response that I will not endeavor to outdo.
Whose job is it to decide what words look strange and what words just look fancy? And at what point does an exotic extra consonant become distracting?
As a former copy editor and media ethics/law aficionado, the NYT can publish whatever it wants. Its rights are the same as The National Enquirer’s or any other tabloid. The only thing to risk is its legitimacy, a la FOX News.
But personally, I think it’s a shame that one of the last bastions of good journalism has to resort to a reader poll asking if it’s OK to call out bullshitters on their bullshit.