NEW YORK When The New York Times on July 16 broke the story of a 2003 State Department memo that had become a key element in the Valerie Plame leak investigation, the paper scored a major exclusive. But when The Washington Post hit newsstands that very same Saturday, it had its own version of the same story. It even credited the Times for the same-day scoop.
Welcome to life under the Washington Post-New York Times swap. As part of a secret arrangement formed more than 10 years ago, the Post and Times send each other copies of their next day's front pages every night. The formal sharing began as a courtesy between Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and former Times Executive Editor Joseph Lelyveld in the early 1990s and has continued ever since.
Tapscott doesn't like the arrangement and for very good reason:
Can you imagine what the outrage would be if it were Microsoft and Apple exchanging their product plans every day? Or GM and Ford? Hertz and Avis?
...
So the public should know if these two media giants have secretly divided up national advertising accounts? Agreed on who would cover which government agencies most aggressively? Coordinated recruiting operations? Exchanged lists of favored politicos and of those targeted for tough treatment?
After all, what's the difference between a "gentleman's agreement" to fix gasoline prices and two gentlemen in the media agreeing to tell each other their biggest trade secret, every day?
It doesn't pass the sniff test for the two dominant newspapers in the country to share this type of information. It skews media coverage of big events in a signficant way by giving the impression that certain news is, well, bigger than it really is. When you consider that both papers have a significant leftward tilt (in reporting and editorial) it magnifies the effect.
Living in the Northeast I can testify that many folks, especially retirees, read these papers from cover to cover daily and consider it truly the Bible. [I recall a particularly enlightening conversation with a family friend where upon my suggestion that she diversify her sources of news, she replied that well she watched the BBC and listened to NPR!]
HT: Instapundit
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