December 18, 2017

"While this is an interesting and emotionally moving article, there are more important issues affecting the citizens of the United States that the NYT should be using its resources in covering..."

"... such as the humanitarian disaster in Yemen, income inequality in the United States and all the wars that the United States is engaged in around the world. For many days and weeks there is little or no coverage of these issues. Instead I see major articles about NYC buildings with manually operated elevators, designer shoes, or the retrieval of dead bodies from the top of Mount Everest. I doubt that today's NYT would be covering the Daniel Ellsberg 's Pentagon Paper leak as it did in the past, when with great courage it used its resources to make sure that the public got access to this important information."

A comment on the big front-page NYT article "Deliverance From 27,000 Feet," which is about bringing 2 corpses down from Mount Everest. I have not read the article. I simply do not want to read anything more about the people who climb Mount Everest. I can see that 2 people died on Mount Everest and became the subject of a NYT article, but 2 people die every second, and I would rather read an article about any random 2 human beings who did not leave their family to go tempt Death on the world's tallest mountain but who died anyway.

42 comments:

Steve said...

Every corpse on Mount Everest was once an overachiever.

Bay Area Guy said...

No need to climb Mount Everest. A nice, nearby hike (Tilden Park in Berkeley/Oakland) will do just fine.

Nonapod said...

income inequality in the United States

Yes. Let's have more and more tedious articles about income inequality in the US from the NYT. I'm certain that'll generate lots and lots of click throughs and subs for them. Wealthy NY liberal urbanites love reading about the poors.

Vance said...

If you cross Hillary, you can die just by walking down the street in Washington DC. Ask Seth Rich or Vince Foster.

--Vance

gspencer said...

"which is about bringing 2 corpses down from Mount Everest"

A problem caused by first-worlders who, prior to their high altitude demises, had too much time and too much money.

Vance said...

And speaking of death, word is that someone put something on the tracks in Tacoma that caused that train to derail.

Could be accident; could be something blown onto the tracks, but it could also be ISIS or other Muslim, or it could be Leftist Antifa, since they have a green light to commit violence, blessed by the left.

--Vance

Wince said...

While this is an interesting and emotionally moving article, there are more important issues affecting the citizens of the United States that the NYT should be using its resources in covering such as the humanitarian disaster in Yemen, income inequality in the United States and all the wars that the United States is engaged in around the world.

Everything's Alright

Try not to get worried, try not to turn on to
Problems that upset you, oh.
Don't you know

Everything's alright, yes, everything's alright, yes.

Surely you're not saying we have the resources
To save the poor from their lot?
There will be poor always, pathetically struggling.
Look at the good things you've got.
Think while you still have me!
Move while you still see me!
You'll be lost, and you'll be sorry when I'm gone.

Vet66 said...

AMEN, Sister....

jimbino said...

Amerikans don't want to hear from the NYT facts like:

1. Amerikans of color are almost totally absent from our public lands, like Yellowstone.
2. Age discrimination in employment is rampant in Amerika.
3. So is discrimination against singles and the childfree in taxes, inheritance and immigration.
4. The gummint maintains monuments to monotheism at public expense on public lands, all the while tearing down Confederate statues that insult Blacks and the Union.
5. Nothing fails like prayer, especially after natural or terrorism disasters.

Wince said...

You'll be lost, and you'll be sorry when I'm gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane!."

I prefer Ian Gillian and Murray Head to Ted Neely and Carl Anderson.

AllenS said...

Ah, jimbino, blacks don't go camping, they go to funky funky Broadway. Which is some place you should stay away from.

jimbino said...

@Steve Every corpse on Mount Everest was once an overachiever.

Every corpse on Mount Everest is also a testament to the futility of renewing your health insurance.

Fabi said...

I'll bet jimbino is a ton of fun at cocktail parties!

jimbino said...

@Allan S

Ah, jimbino, blacks don't go camping, they go to funky funky Broadway. Which is some place you should stay away from.

Ah, Allan S, The gummint requires Blacks, Browns and Reds pay for Yellowstone but not for Broadway, which makes all the difference.

rhhardin said...

The climbers are adapting to their environment. It's like the Senate.

Tank said...

A nice long article on how our President has vanquished ISIS; how bout that?

CJinPA said...

I can see that 2 people died on Mount Everest and became the subject of a NYT article, but 2 people die every second, and I would rather read an article about any random 2 human beings who did not leave their family to go tempt Death on the world's tallest mountain but died anyway.

Luckily, this year the Times implemented a policy in which it will publish more than one article each day. There is room for mountain deaths and non-mountain deaths.

The NYT comment is kind of funny. The outlet is aggressively partisan, yet still not strident enough for the true believers.

James K said...

I would rather read an article about any random 2 human beings who did not leave their family to go tempt Death on the world's tallest mountain but died anyway.

How does this square with the post the other day about the daredevil who fell from the top of a skyscraper? Aren't they much the same thing?

Qwinn said...

The NY Times, like the rest of the media, talks about Everest so they don't have to talk about the "insurance policy", Project Veritas videos, Bob Menendez or any other leftie malfeasance.

Rocketeer said...

Ah, Allan S, The gummint requires Blacks, Browns and Reds pay for Yellowstone but not for Broadway, which makes all the difference.

Would that it were true, jimbino.

tim in vermont said...

If they want to study income inequality, they are going to have to consider the factor of flooding the US labor market with low wage Mexicans and its impact on wages. And BTW, any New Yorker can go for a walk and learn about the kinds of income inequality that simply doesn’t exist in most red states, on account of we are all hicks, you know, poor hicks!

Big Mike said...

We can make a start on income inequality by putting a 100% surtax on people who live on the Upper West Side. Also college professors in non-STEM fields.

Also journalists and people who work for NPR.

john said...

Incredible pictures, gut-wrenching videos. And text. I thought Jon Krakauer was the author, he was not, but just as well written. Professor, you should read this anyway, it is very much worth your time.

Fernandinande said...

Like that one guy said,

"A single death is a tragedy; 27,000 feet is a lot."

AllenS said...

Yeah, well, jimbo, I pay for welfare, but I've never used it.

Darrell said...

I want government Cheez-Whiz.

Michael said...

Jimbino puts the K in America signifying his solidarity with every idiot of the lame edge of 1966. Probably wears a beret.

You cannot get more bourgeois than putting a K in America. LOL

ccscientist said...

IIRC more have died trying to climb Everest than have made it to the top.

The argument that "income inequality" is a big issue is spurious. People like Bill Gates and Sam Walton got rich by providing something people wanted and needed. They didn't steal it. Those who get rich by getting government favors/deals (e.g., Solyndra) is a different issue. Such carping is jealousy pure and simple.

If a paper covered only the heavy issues no one would read it.

Virgil Hilts said...

I never really wanted to read Krakauer's Into Thin Air - at one time it seemed like everyone you knew had read or was reading it. Then I finally did; it was fascinating and hard to put down.
But, having read it, I've had my fill of Everest. People who try to climb it are idiots. Their bodies can continue to not rot up there in the thin air for all I care.

tcrosse said...

Last time I went to Yellowstone, I missed the No Blacks Allowed sign. Must have blinked.

Martha said...

The photos are extraordinary. ....
but still, climbers risk everything for a fleeting experience.

Big Mike said...

IIRC more have died trying to climb Everest than have made it to the top.

According to the article itself, about 5000 have summitted Everest, about 300 hundred have died. A six percent fatality rate makes it dangerous, but not terribly so.

Big Mike said...

That's the trouble, Virgil, the bodies don't rot up there.

Oso Negro said...

The NYT could run a series on the Holodomor. It could be considered make-up work for their earlier coverage.

Caligula said...

"Instead I see major articles about NYC buildings with manually operated elevators, designer shoes, or the retrieval of dead bodies from the top of Mount Everest."

There seem to be two complaints here:
1. The author is outraged, outraged!, that those who can afford to spend their money on nonessentials and conspicuous consumption sometimes do just that, and

2. The New York Times provides coverage of this.

Of course, the Times remains dependant on advertising revenue, and if it were to alienate its readers who spend money on such things it just might ruin its profitability. And if you think the NYT aims to retain its higher-income, conspicuously consuming readers you should take a look at the New Yorker magazine!

And those who have more money than they know what to do with will continue to spend it in ways this reader deems foolish. But they're likely to continue to do so unless they're subject to confiscatory taxation (which would have other side effects), and so long as some do this there will be merchants working to get a piece of it, and media looking to get a piece of advertising aimed at these high-end consumers. Perhaps the author would prefer a world in which we all wore Mao outfits?


As for Everest, removing corpsicles from the mountainside might be justified as an environmental clean-up, along with removing the spent oxygen bottles and whatnot that accumulates there. After all, it's cold and dry enough up there that they'll persist if no one removes them.

Rick said...

3. So is discrimination against singles and the childfree in taxes, inheritance and immigration.

I wonder why people argue this. The argument is based on supposedly unequal treatment of individuals and families. But the people arguing it claim unequal applies to any difference in consumption without regard to input. So their principles would require a family of four to have four times the inheritance exclusion and graduated tax rate. Since the difference in exclusions and graduated tax rates is far less than that they should be complaining the government discriminates in favor of singles.

Anything else would increase inequality, yet somehow they manage to misapply their own principles. Don't tell me this is all a ruse and they don't really believe it. I don't know if I could bear the cynicism.

Drago said...

Jimbino wants to Force Bus minorities into the hinterlands because he, a white dude, thinks they should visit there.

And that's not racist at all.....lol

Bilwick said...

Yes, income inequality must be addressed before else! Because nothing hurts Smith like Jones having more money than Smith! How, you ask? To even pose that question is evidence of a criminal lack of compassion!

Bad Lieutenant said...

Althouse, you're so funny. I don't even remember what thread it was but a couple days ago somebody had died, the Chinese guy 100 stories up maybe it was, and you were telling us care care care why don't you care? Now the NYT feeds us a couple of losers to care about, and you're all blase blase.

Random! Or should I say, arbitrary.

And who is arbiter? I picture you as the bratty kid in one of your photos rocketing your hand into the air and saying "Ooh ooh ooh me me me!"

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Ann, if you don't want to read a particular article, don't. Even when starved for anything at all to read, I've never read every word of the NYT. I read the pieces on classical music and skip the ones on rock and hip-hop, but I don't complain that the latter are there.

RichardJohnson said...

Mountaineering might be considered an escape from politics.Maurice Isserman, a professor at Hamilton College, has established a reputation as a historian of the American Comuunist Party. (Not surprisingly, he is a red diaper baby). In the last 10 years he has written two books on mountaineering- US and Himalayan. As if he has written all he wants on the CPUSA, and is moving on.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I understand, I think, the desire that some have to push limits, and it's clearly necessary to human progress. I'm just grateful for myself and my family that I'm not called to that kind of life.