A reader writes:
You wrote of the NYT's contortions on the t-word that "The entire episode, in historical context, will, I believe, be evidence of the Gray Lady's deep deference to American power."
Remember that– in historical context– the reason the NYT is deferent to American power is that American power has, historically, been deferent to it.
The NYT started in 1851 under the editorship of Henry J. Raymond, a protege of Thurlow Weed, the nation's premier king maker. Because it served the business community, and was more moderate than Horace Greeley's rather squirrelly New York Tribune, it rapidly became the Union's most important newspaper.
To maintain control of the contentious Union during the Civil War, Lincoln needed Weed on his side to pull political strings, and he needed the New York Times to sell his decisions. Weed was a frequent visitor to the White House, and Lincoln's letters to Weed are frankly deferent in a way that he was almost never deferent to anyone.
It was Weed's influence that put Andrew Johnson on the 1864 ticket… when Raymond was both editor of the New York Times and chairman of the Republican National Committee. The New York Times and the Republican Party were intricately linked. They have remained so because of the crucial importance of the New York City financiers – which have always leaned heavily toward Republican policies – to the nation's economic stability. More than any newspaper, the New York Times was a product of the interrelationship of the media and politics from the very beginning.
The Dish 