Confessions of an Agenda
At the top of the page: “The New York Times Book Review, May 13, 2007.”
Just underneath “Book Review” was a large black ashtray that consumed almost half of the tabloid-size page. Inside the ashtray were a cross, a Star of David, and Islam’s crescent, all formed by cigarette butts. And below the ashtray was the bold headline: “In God, Distrust.” The headline introduced a Michael Kinsley review of Christopher Hitchens’ book, God Is Not Great—How Religion Poisons Everything.
Guess what came next? Certainly not a surprise; the nation’s leading anti-religion newspaper chose atheist Kinsley to review Hitchens’ book and showcased both in New York Post-style front cover sensationalism. When it comes to trumpeting the latest pseudo-intellectual strain of thought, The New York Times is drawn to the sensationalism it claims to disdain.
Kinsley, a kindred spirit, presumably lifted some of Hitchens’ most persuasive arguments against the existence of God for the review. I was not impressed. And then to explain the absence of “a sustained argument,” he notes “Hitchens thinks a sustained argument shouldn’t even be necessary. . . . To him, it’s blindingly obvious: the great religions all began at a time when we knew a tiny fraction of what we know today about the origins of earth and human life. It’s understandable that early humans would develop stories about gods or God to solve their ignorance.”
So the book reviewer’s premise is that effective reasoning and argumentation is not needed. Imagine, some intellectuals have reached a stage of such advanced cynicism that a not particularly well-reasoned book about the absence of God is nonetheless a “serious” book.
And The New York Times, sounding like a Greek chorus says, “Ahem.” The New York Times’ choice of a symbol, cigarette butts, is particularly revealing. Hitchens’ subtitle (generally chosen by marketers seeking edgy phrases to sell books), “How Religion Poisons Everything,” must have excited the Book Review’s editor. In today’s world, few images are more toxic than cigarettes. Perhaps the next time such a book is reviewed a profile of Mother Teresa poisoning the world can be conjured out of Holocaust images.
My criticism is, of course, of the critic and his journalistic colleagues; I have not read the book. In my reading, book reviews keep me up-to-date with an important slice of the culture while serving two practical purposes. Sometimes they lead me to buy the book, and sometimes they just provide an interesting snippet of information. This time a third purpose was served; the review’s tarted-up prominence and largely uncritical examination betrayed the agenda of its publisher. And I say this with a degree of sadness.
The New York Times has both broad and deep reportorial resources and, for many of the culture-shaping elite, is the newspaper of record. Editorial management—or perhaps even business management—would do itself a favor if those who write or edit material dealing with faith or religion drew from a deeper well of understanding and intellectual rigor.
Al Sikes, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, is a Trustee of The Trinity Forum. He formed Hearst Interactive Media and continues as a consultant to the Hearst Corporation, and is the founder and chair of the Reading Excellence and Discovery Foundation.
6 Responses (comments are closed) • Provocations, Faiths and Worldviews, Public Square, Thu 24 May 2007
