[Marxism] letter to the New York TImes public editor

[MICHAEL YATES <mikedjyates@xxxxxxx>]

Here is a letter I sent to the Times public editor.  Michael Perelman sent me 
the 
Times article on Braddock, PA.  Michael Yates
 
Dear Mr. Hoyt:
 
On January 31, the Times published an article by David Streitfeld on the town
of Braddock, PA. 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/us/01braddock.html?pagewanted=2&ref=us).This 
article, titled "Rock Bottom for Decades, But Showing Signs of Life,"
 is remarkably similar to one published in Monthly Review's December issue
by Jim Straub--"Braddock, Pennsylvania: Out of the Furnace and into the Fire."  
Virtually everything in the
Straub article is in Streitfeld's.  Given that the Monthly Review article has 
gotten a good deal
of publicity, even praised on Jame's Wolcott's Vanity Fair blog (December 18, 
2008).
I'd bet that Mr. Streitfeld got the idea for a Braddock piece from Straub and
used Straub's article as a template for his.  Yet he gave no credit to Straub 
or 
Monthly Review.  Straub did the original work and your journalist piggy-backed 
on it without 
telling readers what he had done.  I am from western Pennsylvania  and can 
assure you that 
unless Streitfeld is from around there too, he would not know much about 
Braddock.
 
The person who informed me of your Braddock piece remarked that newspapers are 
becoming more
like blogs.  Original research is a thing of the past.  Copying is in.
 
Sincerely yours,
 
Michael Yates, Associate Editor of Monthly Review and Editorial Director of 
Montlhy Review Press.
 
 
 
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