New York Times to You: "Drop Dead"
In its never-ending quest to classify and categorize the hoi polloi, the elite Arbiters of Worthiness at the New York Times have created a new class of Worthies.
A number of commenters received notification earlier this week that they had been designated "Trusted Commenters." The Times is publishing comments from these commenters without moderation. This means that comments from these writers will be posted hours before comments by Unworthies.
What? You're not one of the Worthies? Neither am I.
When I complained that popular commenters -- including Yours Truly -- were not among the New Worthies, I received a response which read, in part,
I don't know the details of your comment history on the times (and I don't have any way of finding out), but just so you know the invitations [to become “Trusted Commenters”] are sent out automatically based on an algorithm that takes into account a number of factors. – Aron Pilhofer, Editor, Interactive News, New York Times
One of these Algorithmic Worthies is "tom" from "pittsburgh." Today tom wrote a short, innocuous comment (on Dowd's column) that begins,
The power of the press for good, is why the constitution is important to protect. ...
... and doesn't get better. But, hey, that's how the algorithm crumbles.
Unless and until the Times sees fit to deem hundreds of us among the Worthy, I will neither comment on Times columns nor read the comments (since the Times receives revenue for every click on the comments pages). Please consider joining my boycott.