In a puzzling display of faux populism, the daily’s editorial section added a better-edited version of Rhino Times‘ Sound of the Beep. The result has been the degradation of a formerly respectable op-ed page. Using valuable columnist space for readers’ short, anonymous rantings — rarely as witty as the callers believe and often ignorant to the core — is a criminal waste of that section’s limited space. A newspaper of record’s editorial section should be an oasis of thoughtful analysis of current issues — and that’s what the Observer‘s used to be before The Buzz effectively sent the section into the toilet. — John Grooms
This article appears in Aug 4-10, 2004.
