Crime and History | City Journal
About 40 years ago, Michael Janofsky, a Miami-based newspaper reporter, was applying for a job at the New York Times. His final interview was with Abe Rosenthal, the paper s legendary but imperious editor. Rosenthal asked the young man if he had any questions. Adam Nagourney, in his wonderful recent book The Times, picks up the story:
I m curious, Janofsky responded. . . . The paper has so many reporters filing stories from so many places around the world. How do you decide each day what readers are interested in reading on the front page?
Rosenthal did not pause. We tell them what they should be interested in, he said.
Gallup has just released a poll showing that 63 percent of Americans regard our current crime problem as serious or extremely serious. Activist academics and mass incarceration scholars want to change that. They want the public to be interested, instead, in systemic racism, and in making the sacrifices they say are necessary for racial justice. Whether their stance is cynical or smug is up for interpretation; but it is certainly au courant.
John McMillian.