As a longtime reader and subscriber of the New York Times, I’m disgusted by the move to shut down the Green Blog. The closure of the environment desk a couple of months ago was frustrating, but I had hope that the Times would continue its coverage on the Green Blog. I should have known better.
Claiming that environment coverage will continue through other desks is a farce. Here’s the argument managing editor Dean Baquet made to Inside Climate News when the environment desk was shut down in January:
[E]nvironmental stories are “partly business, economic, national or local, among other subjects,” Baquet said. “They are more complex. We need to have people working on the different desks that can cover different parts of the story.”
That same logic could be applied to the Washington bureau. “Political stories are ‘partly business, economic, national or local, among other subjects.’ ” But it won’t be. The Times thinks environmental stories are second rate, not important enough to merit their own desk, or even their own blog.
I let the Times know how I feel. You can, too.