The SCC Library is proud to announce our new New York Times online
subscription! Now SCC students, staff, and faculty have free access to
daily New York Times articles and
their archive via the paper’s nyt.com website. Visit http://library.sccsc.edu/newyorktimes.asp to learn how to activate
your NYT account with your SCC web ID
and password for immediate access.
“But what’s the big deal,” you ask? “Isn’t The New York Times just another newspaper?” Heck no! This is the “newspaper of record” we’re talking about! The Times has developed a reputation among journalists and readers as the best quality American newspaper, lauded for its thorough reporting and journalistic standards in the U.S. and internationally. Plus The New York Times has an over 160-year history of innovative reporting and state-of-the-art publishing methods. Here are just a few of the notable episodes in the history of The New York Times.
“But what’s the big deal,” you ask? “Isn’t The New York Times just another newspaper?” Heck no! This is the “newspaper of record” we’re talking about! The Times has developed a reputation among journalists and readers as the best quality American newspaper, lauded for its thorough reporting and journalistic standards in the U.S. and internationally. Plus The New York Times has an over 160-year history of innovative reporting and state-of-the-art publishing methods. Here are just a few of the notable episodes in the history of The New York Times.
The Times’ Founder Fought Off Rioters with
a Machine Gun
In July of 1863, a draft was instituted to enlist recruits
for the newly-formed Union Army in anticipation of the Civil War. This sparked
the New York Draft Riots, in which those protesting the draft attacked the home
office of The New York Times,
violently denouncing the paper’s pro-union, anti-slavery positions. Times founder Henry Raymond and his
newspapermen held off the protesters with Gatling guns (an early form of
machine gun). The protesters, understandably unnerved by the resistance, decided
to go attack the office of The New York
Tribune instead.
The Times Exposed a Corrupt Political
Operation before it was Cool
Throughout the 1800’s, New York was largely managed by a
backroom-dealing, unofficial political “office” known as Tammany Hall, that
infiltrated city government with Tammany-approved politicians and their wives’
favorite nephews. The most notorious of these proto-mafiosos was William Marcy
“Boss” Tweed, who, though never elected mayor himself, essentially controlled
the mayor’s office. Tweed was known for being exceedingly generous with city
contracts, paying his favored tradesmen $40,000 for a broom here and $180,000
for a table and chairs there, until The
Times published details of New York County’s financial records. His
corruption exposed, Tweed died in prison, cursing The New York Times and its savvy readers.
The Times’ Famous Slogan was a Diss on Its Competitors
By the 1890’s, New York newspapers such as Joseph Pulitzer’s
New York World and William Randolph
Hearst’s New York Journal had
developed a well-deserved reputation for their “yellow journalism,” publishing
sensational, lurid, and often wildly inaccurate news stories to lure in readers. Times publisher Adolph Ochs began running
the slogan “All the News That’s Fit to Print” on the masthead of his paper,
suggesting The New York Times was the
proper choice for the distinguished reader too sophisticated for celebrity
gossip and photos of decapitated hobos. Readers agreed. Despite contests to
find a replacement slogan, Och’s masthead promise has remained in place since
1896.
The Times has Won More Pulitzer Prizes than
Any Other Newspaper
Beginning in 1918, The
New York Times has racked up 122 Pulitzer Prizes for excellence in
journalism. The prizes have been awarded for reporting on a wide variety of
subjects, including coverage of World War I, the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, architecture
criticism, war in Lebanon, toxic shock syndrome, the Challenger space shuttle
disaster, molecular biology, the reunification of Germany, the Sept. 11
attacks, Ebola, food safety, Hurricane Katrina, and even a multimedia
presentation about avalanches. This year, The
Times won Pulitzers for reports on
Hollywood’s abuse of women, Russian interference in U.S. elections, and an
editorial comic strip about the struggle of refugees who fear deportation.
The Bombing of Pearl
Harbor Created the Times Crossword
Puzzle
The New York Times
Crossword Puzzle, the standard-bearer among puzzle freaks across the globe, was
not the sort of thing Times
publishers initially wanted for their lofty newspaper. Though crossword puzzles
gained popularity in the 1920’s, the Times
considered them “a primitive form of mental exercise.” It was not until the
bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 that an editor finally conceded that a
crossword puzzle might be a nice diversion for a readership weary of wartime
worries. No one knows who wrote the debut puzzle, but a large team of
contributing puzzlesmiths and associated word geeks create the crossword
section today.
The Times Helped Strengthen to First
Amendment
In 1960, The New York
Times ran an advertisement, written by a civil rights group, which
described actions by the Alabama police to curb their right to protest on a
college campus. The problem was that many of the claims were exaggerated or
false, prompting L.B. Sullivan, the Montgomery city commissioner, to file a
libel lawsuit against the Times.
Sullivan claimed he had been personally injured by the ad’s errors, seeing as
he supervised the police department, and the Alabama Supreme Court agreed.
However, when the Times appealed the
case, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ruling, a case that established the
“actual malice” requirement in libel cases (injured parties must prove a story
was published with the intent to harm and that the publisher knew the story was
false). Nice shot with that “freedom of the press” play, New York Times!
The Times Fought a War Against the Pentagon
… and Won!
Daniel Ellsberg, a former State Department official, found
himself in possession of The Pentagon
Papers, a secret report compiled by the U.S. Department of Defense on the
war in Vietnam, and turned them over to The
New York Times in 1971. The Times
began publishing excerpts from the report, which revealed to their readers that
the U.S. had escalated their military efforts long before the public was
informed. Though a federal court injunction demanded that the Times cease publication of this “leaked”
material, the Supreme Court ruled that attempts to stop the presses were
considered “prior restraint” and upheld the paper’s right to publish. Score
another First Amendment victory for Notorious NYT!
The Times Won’t Drop F-Bombs … Usually
The New York Times
maintains a strict “watch the potty mouth” policy, refusing to publish bad
language or other material they deem offensive. In the 1950’s, a picture editor
was fired for running a photo of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio locked in an
open-mouthed kiss. Twenty years later, a photo of Vice President Nelson Rockefeller
extending his middle finger at protesters was censored before publication (the
article stating only that Mr. Rockefeller “gestured three times with his
finger”). While certain widely-circulated videos in recent years have been
reported by the Times with their
four-letter-words intact, the paper has traditionally replaced such language
with the term “barnyard epithet.”
The Times Exercises Freedom of the Press …
with a Paywall
With the arrival of the internet, traditional newspaper
funding through advertising and subscription dollars began quickly drying up as
free content began flooding the web, including free online versions of
newspapers like The New York Times.
In 2011, the Times announced a
paywall for their online publication. Five articles per month are available for
free, but continued use of the site now requires a subscription, ranging from
$15 to $35 per month. The gamble worked. As of December 2017, the Times had doubled its readership over
the previous two years with 3.5 million paid subscriptions, insuring the
continued life of “all the news that’s fit to print.”
But the best news is that SCC folks still have access to The New York Times for free!
Just follow the instructions and link on this page to register and enjoy access to the Times and its archive courtesy of Spartanburg Community College!
But the best news is that SCC folks still have access to The New York Times for free!
Just follow the instructions and link on this page to register and enjoy access to the Times and its archive courtesy of Spartanburg Community College!
Works Cited
