Times Up

Of all the MSM outlets, the New York Times (www.nytimes.com/ ) is perhaps the paper currently most imperriled in the US by the rise of the web & plummeting circulation figures in the industry.
It would therefore make sense for the NYT to sharpen its journalistic focus & produce articles which start to revive the dying art of the investigative newspaper piece, wouldn't it?
Well, so far it hasn't. Instead, with the blogosphere turning the heat on CNBC after Jon Stewart's sublime dissection of the channel last week, the NYT has instead decided to run what our cousins across the pond call a softball piece on the station with a rapidly diminishing stock value of its own (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/business/media/09cnbc.html?8dpc )
The only note of journalistic verity in an otherwise news-lite article is struck when it notes that "CNBC is now a place for politics, to borrow a phrase from its sister channel MSNBC. The network's journalists have been encouraged to speak their minds, making the line between reporter and commentator almost indistinguishable at times.
" 'When they are all sitting around the table it's hard to tell a business pundit versus a reporter,' said Tom Rosentiel, the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism."
In common with other US titles, the NYT is facing a financial & journalistic crisis. Articles such as this only serve to hasten its eventual demise.