A recent discussion concerned the fact that The New Yorker doesn’t count anymore. When did it stop counting, what does it mean to count and who does count?
I think the New Yorker stopped counting some time around the arrival of Tina Brown in the 1990s. It wasn’t Tina, it was that Tina marked a point in America where the haughty arrogance of the New Yorker, with a snotty overtone of “anyone intelligent is pro-Left” was finally seen as a part of tradition of opposing war against Hitler, tacit support of Stalin, benign approval of Mao, Castro and the mid-century killers. When that assemblage was finally considered irrelevant the New Yorker’s arrogant, Harvard modulated and elitist voice no longer mattered. Most recently the New Yorker published a false article connecting the rise of the Tea Party to the Koch brothers.
What does it mean to count? You count if you are consistently honest and accurate so other media, and the occasional public figure, respond to your strong, original and relevant articles.
Who counts today in the U.S.? The following count: the Washington Post and the Jerusalem Post; Commentary and the Weekly Standard; Fox News, Slate (online) Politico and the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal didn’t count until the late 1990s when it started doing follow-up on the issues it raised.