2. The kids today don't remember him but Abe Rosenthal was a big editor at the New York Times whose main job in the 1970s was to make sure Seymour Hersh didn't put too much truth into the newspaper.
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3. It was the time of Watergate, so the Times needed Hersh to compete with Woodward & Bernstein. They let Hersh publish some truths about Nixon & Kissinger, but not too much. Rosenthal was the guy who held the line. His gravestone reads: “He kept the paper straight."
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4. For his services, the Times rewarded Rosenthal late in life with a column. He was, hands down, the worst columnist has ever had. Just unbelievably bad.
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5. Spy magazine in 1987 on the heroic badness of Rosenthal's column. (Interesting historical note: pre-twitter people used to share bad Times columns by calling each other on the phone).pic.twitter.com/R9i3LZZzot
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6. Further to Abe Rosenthal as the great gatekeeper of the Times in the 1960s-1980s, it's worth remembering the story of how the Times in that era bungled the Watergate scandal. It's a story told in a biography of Rosenthalpic.twitter.com/LQM2vinNxI
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7. Max Frankel, the Times' chief Washington correspondent when Watergate happened, handled the story by going to Kissinger, who told him there was nothing there. So Frankel left it alone.pic.twitter.com/3nf3DDcGRY
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8. You might think that missing the biggest scandal in USA history because you trusted an obviously interested source would hurt your career. But Frankel in fact did what the Times expected of him. And he was rewarded for it. Eventually became executive editor
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Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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will you have the resources to cover international stories? Cover an unfolding story for months at a time?
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