May 05, 2004

Riedel High

Even if you're like me and you don't particularly care about what goes on on Broadway, it's hard not to love the New York Post's super-catty theater columnist, Michael Riedel. Riedel's in top form today, going after a favorite target- Tony Kushner- and more specifically the New York Times' near-idolatrous attitude towards the "Angels in America" playwright.

Apparently the producer of Kushner's latest play is upset that the NYT's lukewarm review was small and not displayed prominently enough. Boo hoo, says Riedel:

A playwright of Kushner's stature, Landesman says, should have been treated with more respect by the newspaper of record.

How right he is.

Why, not since the debacle of Wen Ho Lee, the nuclear scientist wrongly accused of leaking secrets to China, has the Times treated someone as shabbily as it has Tony Kushner.

In the past year alone, the Times has written favorably about Kushner only some 70 times, according to a Lexis-Nexis search.

If the paper really respected this great writer, it would have published twice that many articles about him.

One of those articles, a front-page Arts and Leisure puff job, ran 3,817 words.

What an outrage!

A profile of a playwright of Kushner's stature should run at least 6,817 words.

In that article, the Times published lists of Kushner's writing projects, his pet political causes and the books on his nightstand.

The paper neglected to make public his grocery list.

How insulting!

Posted by Stephen Silver at May 5, 2004 09:33 PM
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