Dear CCI Readers,
The New York Times has descended into political expediency and pressure for years. Finally, on April 23, the Times printed this article below, chronicling America’s tragic and likely irreversible decline. It comes from Berlin’s NYT Bureau Chief, Katrin Bennhold, a lovely and assertive young woman who can take the hits, if necessary.
This Berlin article may be the turning point in U.S. print media acknowledging and facing the consequences about what America has turned into over the past several decades. A number of elements are dealt with below; some with sadness, some with relief, others still questioning … but the verdict of all seems to be, “what we thought had been … and was, is gone forever.”
Over 1800+ comments to this article were registered following the first few hours after release, thus showing the reader’s concurrence. I read through dozens of them. They carried loss, regret, blame of Trump, deep concern … but none had hope of return to America’s glorious past. To me it seems like a coming-to-grips-with … what is.
My question of the moment is, why has the NYT allowed it to come out in this manner, at this time?
Had the NYT finally realized that their direction would be “outed,” by the plethora of good journalists now writing on the Internet? Further, could the Times be the “baby thrown out with the bathwater” in public opinion … It’s also a safety valve to underscore that there is no choice but to change. Rather than printing this admission in the U.S., they decided to let it drift in from Berlin using Bennhold to handle the responses. Is this a mea culpa of sorts from the NYT?
I’m interested in how you see it. Read and ponder … and forward to your colleages, family, friends and neighbors. We need you to get needed messages out to larger audiences who don’t read the NYT.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
‘Sadness’ and Disbelief From a World Missing American Leadership
The coronavirus pandemic is shaking bedrock assumptions about U.S. exceptionalism. This is perhaps the first global crisis in more than a century where no one is even looking for Washington to lead.
April 23, 2020
By Katrin Bennhold
BERLIN — As images of America’s overwhelmed hospital wards and snaking jobless lines have flickered across the world, people on the European side of the Atlantic are looking at the richest and most powerful nation in the world with disbelief.
“When people see these pictures of New York City they say, ‘How can this happen? How is this possible?’” said Henrik Enderlein, president of the Berlin-based Hertie School, a university focused on public policy. “We are all stunned. Look at the jobless lines. Twenty-two million,” he added.
“I feel a desperate sadness,” said Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European history at Oxford University and a lifelong and ardent Atlanticist.
The pandemic sweeping the globe has done more than take lives and livelihoods from New Delhi to New York. It is shaking fundamental assumptions about American exceptionalism — the special role the United States played for decades after World War II as the reach of its values and power made it a global leader and example to the world.