He is chic, hip and after reading last weekend’s piece in The The New York Times Sunday Styles section, you might think that Chris Hayes and his show “Up w/Chris Hayes” is the best thing to hit cable TV for the hipster in-crowd since AMC’s “Mad Men.”
Hayes, the author of “Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy,” finds himself on the receiving end of a 1,400-word Times puff-piece by Alex Williams, who had a lot of good things to say about Hayes’ weekend morning show. And the premise that Hayes had arrived seems to be predicated on getting a shout-out from rocker Ted Leo at a concert in Washington, D.C.
“Mr. Hayes, the host of MSNBC’s new morning weekend political talk show, was padding around his apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn, early the next day when e-mails started popping up from excited friends who had been at the concert,” Williams wrote. “He was getting used to surging ratings and frequent mentions on The Huffington Post. But a shout-out from Ted Leo? He had arrived.”
A show that is in its infancy couldn’t ask for better press from an outlet like the Times, but what went unmentioned is that the Times and MSNBC have a cozy relationship.
Both are currently entered into a content-sharing partnership, according to the Times corporate page. The agreement, which appears to be still in effect, as the Times travel writer Michelle Higgins was featured on MSNBC’s website as recently as June 13, went undisclosed in Williams’ piece.
Williams did recall one of Hayes’ more noteworthy highlights in recent weeks, when he said he was “uncomfortable” using the word “hero” to describe fallen U.S. soldiers, which Williams called Hayes taking “his first banana-cream pie in the food fight that is contemporary American political discourse.”
Ratings hit? Not quite.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/26/ny-times-declares-msnbcs-chris-hayes-awesome-leaves-out-a-few-things/#ixzz1z0O0e9xx
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.