The New York Times has published many articles where they have a comment from one and state they could get no comment from the other.
The New York Times frequently mentions party position without quoting an on-the-record source by name. They generally try to provide both sides the story even when one side isn't willing to give a on-the-record answer.
Whenever you read in a New York Times article: "A senior democrat told us XY about policy Z", that democrat asked the journalist to treat his statement as off-the-record in the sense that he doesn't want to be publically on record with voicing the opinion he gave the journalist.
What I'm suggesting is a heavy breach with the way things are done at the moment, if you think it's not new, you might to pay more attention at the way things currently work.
The heart of my objection is the idea that you can change the world by changing the new york times. Especially now, but not even back when newspapers mattered do I think that would work in a lasting way.
The New York Times isn't/wasn't the paper-of-record that gets to decide how everybody will get their news. They are/were a paper with certain journalistic standards and practices that rose in the marketplace of ideas to a level of trust and importance. When the NYT changes what it does, in some short run it is likely influential, but in a longer run if...
See this Newsroom clip.
Basically, their news network is trying to change the way political debates work by having the moderator force the candidates to answer the questions that are asked of them, not interrupt each other, justify arguments that are based on obvious falsehoods etc.
How big of a positive impact do you guys think that this would have on society?
My initial thoughts are that it would be huge. It would lead to better politicians, which would be a high level of action. The positive effects would trickle down into many aspects of our society.
The question then becomes, "can we make this happen?". I don't see a way right now, but the idea has enough upside to me that I keep it in the back of my mind in case I come up with a plausible way of implementing the change.
Thoughts?