How

      low

            can

                  you

                        go?


A report from the University of Minnesota is issued on September 4. It surveyed teen sexual activity and parental attitudes and knowledge of same. Nothing special. It's put on the wire by AP and Reuters, and then picked up by:

The San Francisco Chronicle

The Christian Science Monitor

The Washington Post

The New York Times

The Los Angeles Times

The Chicago Tribune

Just to name a few.

The story may be banal. Perhaps even jejune. So what does the Mickster do? He decides to take a jab at the The New York Times (for the Nth time) by implying that its story is hard to distinguish from a typically arch entry in The Onion. Kaus headlines with:

New York Times ... or The Onion? You, the Reader, Make the Call!

Kaus has truly reached the bottom of the barrel.

Normally, this sort of stunt by Kaus might generate a smile, but in light of his recent, continuous, Times-bashing, it's simply not funny. Rather sad, in fact.

NOTE TO KAUS: It's The New York Times.

UPDATE: We couldn't believe it, but Kaus did it again: yet another poke at the New York Times (Friday morning, Sep 6). In order to accurately calibrate the Kaus-NYT obsession, we decided to examine what's currently on kausfiles.com (or its Slate doppelganger). Here, as a part of our new Kaus-Skipper Service, we present an outline of his most recent entries.

Sept 6	The New York Times' Adam Nagourney: Make up your mind!
Sept 5	The New York Times or The Onion? Massachusetts gubernatorial primary Sullivan, Gulity Southern White Boys, The New York Times' Howell Raines, et al.
Sept 4	New York gubernatorial primary Talent leaving The American Prospect The New York Times admits error on Kissinger
Sept 3	New York gubernatorial primary The New York Times "reforming" in the eyes of Kaus and Sullivan (Kissinger related)
Sept 2	Massachusetts gubernatorial primary The term "homeland", plus small swipe at The New York Times Social Security Disability report in The New York Times that he likes - and Kaus' claim that it was run (on page 1) because the regular editors are on vacation.
Sept 1	Dick Armey gets "strange new respect" in The New York Times Magazine (actually he didn't)
August 31	The term "homeland", with some carping about The New York Times Welfare caseloads and homless rates and the differences between stories published on January 17 and August 31 by The New York Times Musical group, The Capricorns
August 28	Complaint about Krugman's recent column in The New York Times A Media Whores trifle

In the set above, 11 out of 18 entries are critical of The New York Times or contain a smart-alecky remark about an NYT editor or writer. That's 61%, and notable because it's the only newspaper he comments upon (although there are links to stories in The Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today). What a boor.
posted by Quiddity at 9/05/2002 08:21:00 PM