Mr. Brisbane: Up Close and Personal

Well, here is my email.  My op-ed writer has yet to email me back; however I am still hoping for a Christmas miracle, since he is the public editor of the New York Times and all...

Dear Mr. Brisbane,

Hello!   My name is Haley Craig and I am a junior at Roncalli High School in Greenwood, IN.  I am currently following your op-ed articles in the New York Times for a blogging project I have in an AP Language class.  I just blogged about your lastest article, "Readers With Plenty to Say."  The assignment was to "shape your argument" stating your claim, concession, and supporting points.  I was just wondering if there were any other issues you have with the complaints made online.  Do people really always want something better?  How has becoming an editor changed your view of the public?  Can your position be a little overwhelming?  Do you have any advice on writing and blogging? 

I'm sure your always busy so thanks for your time! :) 

Haley Craig

To be continued...

The World of Commenting

"Readers With Plenty to Say"

In the article, Brisbane talks about the "world of commenters" particularily on the New York Times website.

  Claim:  "In the creation of something good, alas, expectations have risen. Now the thundering herd of commenters wants more."  Whenever something good is handed to the general public, something better is always expected.  Commenters on the internet will never be pleased and always have something to complain about. 

Concession:  "While these folks sometimes achieve their ends.." (these folks = commentariats)

1.  Brisbane's claim is supported week to week through the number of complaints sent to him since he is the editor of the New York Times.  He gives a list of examples of the complaints he recieves most commonly such as "comments are often not posted in the order they were submitted" and petty things like this.  I'm glad the world is worrying  about the order of posted comments when we could be spending time on solving world hunger...

2. The New York Times focuses on quality, not speed.  Commenters should  not complain about the lack of trying on the part of the workers at The Times.

• Human moderators are used instead of automaitc filters used today by many websites.
• These moderators are trained to "filter out personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, commercial promotion and other bad things while filtering in thoughtful, diverse and to-the-point comments."
• digital filtering is used to quickly delete offending matter
• Bassey Etim suprivises the desk of moderating comments.  She is always working with the 24-7 rush of comments from readers and is dedicated to the quality of her work.
• handling comments is like stopping a dike

 3.  Comments are handled differently in different parts of the growing empire of the Times.  Bloggers    can make their own comments without dealing with the human moderators.  Editors, web producers, and reporters can edit comments as well.

I agree with Brisbane's point - people always complain about the littlest things, never knowing the situation on the other side of the coin.  This happens all the time, all around me.  The other day, I heard about a teacher who hand painted a 't' onto the t-shirts of a club so they would not be made fun of.  Unknowingly, the class made fun of the mysterious 't' not knowing that this was done out of care and dedication to her students.  Sometimes I just do not understand why people complain and make comments so much.  Find out all the facts before you comment on something; you never know everything unless you have experienced it.  Like my mom always says, if you don't like something, do it yourself. :)

The Name Game

Walking through a park, you will come across kids of all ages playing, jumping, skipping, running, acting as a young child would act just as the two boys in the picture to the left are acting. 

Now look at the boys again, except this time, not as innocent, naive children.  Look at them as filthy criminals who know the difference between right and wrong.

Seems a little twisted doesn't it?

In the article, Names in the News, Before They Can Read, Arthur Brisbane discusses the case pressing the minds of lawyers and judges everywhere.  The case concerns and young girl and boy riding their bicycles on a neighborhood street in New York City.  Because of their young age, they were not paying attention to the environment around them and ran into an elderly lady, knocking her down.  She suffered injuries that required her to be hospitilized.  Three months later, the lady died of unrelated causes.

Should 4 and 5-year-olds be able to tell the difference between right and wrong allowing their names to be used everywhere?  Many lawyers tend to believe so. 

However, Mr. Brisbane takes the opposite stance.  He felt compelled to write about this issue due to the intrest of the readers on The Time's Web site.  Also, warped information is circulating throughout the internet.  Brisbane is attempting to clarify and pose the question to the reader: "can a 5-year-old be sued for negligence in the state of New York," and if so may their names be used in public documents?

Mr. Brisbane clearly believes that a young child can not know the difference between right and wrong at the age of 5.  Therefore, their names should not be used in public articles.  The reasons he illustrates include:

• Executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund-New York said that the public scrunity of children is "a dangerous trend in America."
• When a child's name is used online, it is avaliable to every eye to see.  This will probably not effect the child's life now, but in the future, their name will be connected with murders and wrong - doers.  The "Google Effect" can have a negative impact on the children in the future.
• It is traumatic to push a young child into the spotlight of publicity.
•  Are names really necessary to understand the issue at hand?

One technique Mr. Brisbane exemplifies in the article that makes his writing effective is the use of rhetorical questions.  At the beginning of the article, rhetorical questions are posed for the reader to ponder.  Rhetorical questions also add to the opinion of the author.  After reading the first two sentences, I understood the opinion of Mr. Brisbane on the matter.

Below is a link to the article.  Personally, I believe that using a child's name in online documents only causes trouble for the child, so why use it?  Again, looking at the children in the picture above, I don't think that we need to check our neighborhood directories for those names any time soon.  Why ruin a child's life only to entertain readers?  Oh, the culture of America...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/opinion/14pubed.html

Arthur S. Brisbane

Arthur S. Brisbane



First things first: this is not the Arthur Brisbane you may be thinking of.  No, this is not the most famous editor of the 20th century (I know disappointing for those of you who actually knew about a famous editor...), but of course the next best man: his grandson.  Obviously these writing genes were kept in the family. 

Arthur S. Brisbane is an op - ed writer and editor of the New York Times.  He was just appointed as the editor for this newspaper in June 2010, replacing Clark Hoyt.  With this job, he responds to comments and complaints of the public conerning the coverage and journalism of the newspaper.  His education in writing began at Havard College, and his experience in newspaper includes the reporter and editor for the The Washington Post, the editor and publisher of the The Kansas City Star, and the senior executive of Knight Ridder. 



Arthur S. Brisbane currently
serves as a writer and editor
of the New York Times.



Even with this experience, he has not won any awards that I can find.  I'm sure he will reach that level someday looking at the career of his grandfather.  However, I think it would be safe to say that becoming the editor of the New York Times is a pretty stellar accomplishment, if not an award in and of itself. 



  Today, Mr. Brisbane expects to tackle tough issues in today's world covering anything from local to national news.  His column circultes through the op - ed section in the New York Times website online.  I will be following his op - ed articles, hopefully gaining more knowledge of the world around me, or as Mrs. Helbing always says, the WPP ("world past Prague").  WPP, here I come.