Page 107 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

NEW YORK TIMES
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NEW YORK TIMES. The Times is generally considered the best newspaper in
the United States. It has been so voted in polls of editors and educators. More
important, for our purposes, the Times is a major source of political news. With
perhaps the largest reporting staff of any medium, it provides extensive coverage
of Washington and international coverage that is unmatched. It is read by leaders
in government, education, and business. Its influence extends beyond its own
readership because the New York Times Service has as subscribers nearly all
of the larger newspapers. The Times' coverage reaches more than half the news-
paper readers in the United States.
The Times was founded in 1851 by Henry Raymond, who sought to provide
something other than the sensationalism of James Gordon Bennett's Herald or
the politicized coverage of Horace Greeley's Tribune. The emphasis was on
news, especially foreign news, and that concept has prevailed.
However, after Raymond's death in 1869, the paper ran into considerable
financial difficulty. It was rescued in 1896 by Adolph Ochs, who set the paper
on the road to greatness. A major factor in what the paper achieved was its
managing editor, Carr Van Anda. He concluded that the Titanic must have sunk,
and the Times beat its competitors on that story. But more important, Van Anda
followed up by organizing extensive coverage of the survivors when they landed
in New York. The result was a classic in American journalism.
The Ochs family has retained ownership and leadership of the Times, and the
paper has kept pace with the changes in the newspaper field. To their outstanding
national and international coverage they have added exceptional business and
science sections. The legendary grayness of the front page has given way to a
modern, six-column format with color pictures.

SOURCES: Michael Emery, America's Leading Daily Newspapers, 1983; John C. Mer-
rill and Harold A. Fisher, The World's Great Dailies, 1980.
Guido H. Stempel III

NEW YORK TIMES V. SULLIVAN was the first libel case ever considered by
the U.S. Supreme Court and remains the best known. It happened as a result of
an advertisement placed in the New York Times by the Committee to Defend
Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Freedom in the South. It was critical
of southern law enforcement. L. B. Sullivan, city commissioner in charge of
police in Montgomery, sued the Times. He was not mentioned in the ad, but he
claimed the references to law enforcement agencies constituted identification of
him. The trial court awarded Sullivan $500,000, and the Alabama Supreme
Court upheld that verdict. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, reversed that
ruling. In the majority opinion, Justice William Brennan said that a public of-
ficial could collect libel damages only if he or she could show actual malice.
While this was widely viewed as an entirely new approach to libel, it was
already in use in 10 states. At stake in the case was more than defining libel.
Had the Times lost, coverage of the Civil Rights movement by the Times, other