I have installed an NYTimes app on my phone and decided to read the paper for the first time in over a year. One of the articles offered to me as front-page news was titled “The BlackBerry as Black Sheep.” Since I recently ditched my own BlackBerry (and am not sure if that was a smart decision), I was interested in the article. However, it immediately proved to be one of those pieces where a lazy journalist doesn’t want to do any actual journalism and sells, in lieu of news, hyped-up and spurious opinions of imaginary friends who appear to be total hysterics:
Out in the world, the insults continue. Victoria Gossage, a 28-year-old hedge fund marketer, said she recently attended a work retreat at Piping Rock Club, an upscale country club in Locust Valley, N.Y., and asked the concierge for a phone charger. “First he said, ‘Sure.’ Then he saw my phone and — in this disgusted tone — said, ‘Oh no, no, not for that.’ ”
“You get used to that kind of rejection,” she said. . .
BlackBerry outcasts say that, increasingly, they suffer from shame and public humiliation as they watch their counterparts mingle on social networking apps that are not available to them. . . More indignity comes in having to outsource tasks like getting directions, booking travel, making restaurant reservations and looking up sports scores to their exasperated iPhone and Android-carting partners, friends and colleagues.
Insults, disgust, rejection, shame, humiliation, indignity – the article’s author sounds like she is about to have convulsions. The tone of the article is wildly inappropriate given the subject matter. And the research behind the piece is non-existent. BlackBerry devices have many issues but they are phenomenal at getting directions, booking travel, and making restaurant reservations. I wouldn’t know about sports scores since I’m not a sports fan but I remember having 3 ESPN apps pre-installed in my BlackBerry when I got it 2 years ago.
This is why I hate the NYTimes. The paper’s reporters sell their laziness, condescension and lack of interest in their own profession as journalism.
Clarissa's Blog 
I read the NYT often, but you are right about a lot of the lazy journalism in it.
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The NYT also sells a lot of left-wing ideology.
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I never found a single left-wing sentence in it. I believe that the paper is profoundly conservative but not in a good way. 🙂 🙂 It’s conservative in its endless moralizing, its vocabulary, the kind of lifestyle advice it offers, etc. It’s Dr. Phil conservative. As for actual ideas – conservative or not – it has none.
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Haha I love this quote: “As for actual ideas – conservative or not – it has none.”
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Huh?
I thought RIM was using default USB connectors for their BB phones b now. Unlike Apple, they usually keep standards they agreed to adhere to.
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However, it immediately proved to be one of those pieces where a lazy journalist doesn’t want to do any actual journalism and sells, in lieu of news, hyped-up and spurious opinions of imaginary friends who appear to be total hysterics
These kinds of articles aren’t meant to provide new information or ideas, but are meant to be opportunities for readers to just talk about themselves and what they already know.
There’s also a cutesy tone to it and self-conscious humor I don’t like, as if the writer knows that this is complete nonsense but wants us to play along.
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“There’s also a cutesy tone to it and self-conscious humor I don’t like, as if the writer knows that this is complete nonsense but wants us to play along.”
– exactly! I hate this kind of writing.
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Yes, there is Mitt Romney… 😉
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I have been reading the NYT for the past decade or so; IMO the quality of NYT has been going steadily downhill in this period. There has been a steady rise in the number of childish navel-gazing articles like the one you just pointed to, which I do not find amusing. Even the news articles are of progressively lower quality. Last year, NYT had a poll where the readers were _asked_ if they would like the media to check the facts for them!
I find this decline very sad because I don’t see a suitable alternative — a high quality newspaper with real journalism, not this kind of gibberish. If you can suggest some good alternatives, I will be very glad.
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Not sure if you heard, but a nasty article ran about the Cornell nightlife/ bar scene / hookup culture that had the nastiest most pompous tone. It was one of those typical articles that bemoans the state of the youth today, and the article outright made up details that were revealed about real people quoted that are pretty embarrassing. For example, it said that one person had had a large quantity of vodka, when I know he doesn’t drink vodka and the quantity cited would kill a small horse. Luckily, she got what was coming. She didn’t check the people who she quoted actually existed, and either she outright made it up without realizing there is a publicly available database of each enrolled student, or the students gave her fake names, and she didn’t even bother to check. Either way, the author’s name is tarnished and that’s exactly what she deserves.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01EFDE173BF934A1575AC0A9649D8B63&ref=cornelluniversity
I can’t believe they publish this garbage.
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This is a ridiculously bad article. It’s obvious that the quasi-journalist didn’t even try to do any actual research. And I agree with you completely about the tone of the article. This is an attempt to exploit the popular myth about the bad, promiscuous, lazy young people. The generation of these students is inheriting a shattered economy and the older people try to assuage their own guilt by trying to convince themselves that the young people are worthless anyway.
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