Twilight of the Imperial Chef

Re:Twilight of the Imperial Chef by Wintamute on Thursday August 06, 2020 @05:50AM (#24069511)

The NY Times is engaging in its favourite kink - activism while wearing the garb of journalism and feature writing like a macabre skin suit. It's simply proclaiming only what it wishes were true - that an enlightened and just cultural revolution is underway that deconstructs whatever is deemed to be undesirable (spoiler - anything pale, male and stale). In its hubris it still thinks it has the cultural sway to mould reality by constructing narrative. It is mistaken, and instead which each article of this nature is frittering away its prodigious reputational inheritance painstakingly assembled by generations of journalist that knew what it meant to report the facts and "allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions".

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Re:Twilight of the Imperial Chef by rsynnott on Thursday August 06, 2020 @10:11AM (#24071025)

> frittering away its prodigious reputational inheritance painstakingly assembled by generations of journalist that knew what it meant to report the facts and "allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions".

Wait, are you suggesting that the NY Times used not to do opinion? When was this? Practically all newspapers (or at least general-audience newspapers; trade newsletters and similar less so) have, for centuries.

The basic narrative (chefs used not, in general, be very important, then they became this weird all-important publicly venerated dictator figure who could get away with not only assaulting employees, but actually writing about doing so in books, now there's a backlash against that) doesn't seem that out-there...

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Re:Twilight of the Imperial Chef by frockington1 on Thursday August 06, 2020 @09:06AM (#24070510)

The Twilight of The New York Times would be a better title. Agreed that this is the epitome of why many have lost respect for the company. This piece feels like a medium "article"

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Re:Twilight of the Imperial Chef by ntsplnkv2 on Thursday August 06, 2020 @08:59AM (#24070477)

I think at times the anti-NY Times crowd is as eye-roll worthy as the articles they complain about, but I have to say after reading this article, I can't help but agree with you, it is very narrative driven "journalism."

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Re:Twilight of the Imperial Chef by ethbro on Thursday August 06, 2020 @09:08AM (#24070522)

It isn't journalism: it's opinion.

It's in the Food section [0], and tagged with "Critic's Notebook" anywhere the article is linked. That apparently being one of their blog / opinion lines for food.

It doesn't seem fair to look at modern news conglomerates (which typically combine news and opinion) and complain that the non-news content bismirches the journalism.

That content typically funds the journalism, and is the only reason the latter still exists.

A fair shot would be saying "I do not feel like this article is appropriately declared as opinion." Which, maybe. But I think that's debatable, and the NYT certainly differentiates a helluva lot better than Fox News and MSNBC.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/section/food

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Re:Twilight of the Imperial Chef by ntsplnkv2 on Thursday August 06, 2020 @11:10AM (#24071603)

>It doesn't seem fair to look at modern news conglomerates (which typically combine news and opinion) and complain that the non-news content bismirches the journalism.

And it's just this attitude that has caused the era of fake news.

> A fair shot would be saying "I do not feel like this article is appropriately declared as opinion." Which, maybe. But I think that's debatable, and the NYT certainly differentiates a helluva lot better than Fox News and MSNBC.

This is exactly the point. Fox News and MSNBC are some of the worst offenders - this does not excuse the NYT from it.

Also I remind people that journalism is not just reporting of facts. If it was all newspapers would be lists of factoids.

"Journalism, the collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary"

This is very clearly journalism.

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Re:Twilight of the Imperial Chef by frockington1 on Thursday August 06, 2020 @09:11AM (#24070538)

I would still expect proper evidence. This is equivalent of an article saying "The End of Goldendoodles" with the evidence being that my neighbors dog died. We should expect more from an institution that claims to be more

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Re:Twilight of the Imperial Chef by noelwelsh on Thursday August 06, 2020 @09:05AM (#24070502)

It's not intended to be a record of fact. It's in the "Critics Notebook", which means it is an opinion piece (as is all criticism; do you expect a review of, say, a movie to be an entirely factual document with no opinion?)

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Re:Twilight of the Imperial Chef by ntsplnkv2 on Thursday August 06, 2020 @11:12AM (#24071633)

This isn't a criticism of a particular movie or book.

> For decades, the notion of the lone genius in the kitchen has fostered culinary creativity — and restaurants marred by abuse and unfairness. This may be the time for change.

This is the first paragraph - it is clearly making claims and an argument for something.

Most people reading this would view this as an argument with evidence as such which it presents - it is not a criticism of a book.

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