September 15, 2005
Around times select
A few days ago I wrote that the New York Times would probably hurt itself with the blogging public with its new Times Select program.
What do you do if can't get along with your free fix of Dowd, Herbert, Friedman, Krugman or Rich? (Tierney, you might actually want to pay for!) Well fear not, I suspect that it's not that hard to find these (electronic) treasures for free.
The Maryland public library systems, for example, have databases with access to all different newspapers, including the New York Times. Each system allows you access from home for some of these databases.
Unfortunately, Baltimore County, for which I have a library card has an interface that conflicts with my firewall so to access the article I have to telnet into the site. It's not easy but it's doable.
In another county, let's say Montgomery County (in honor of Pillage Idiot ) go to the magazine and newspaper page, go to Natinal Newspapers 9 and enter your bar code number. You should be in. And one of the newspapers it has access to is the NY Times.
Now this is the case for Maryland. I suspect that it's also the case in most (or maybe all other states).
Also, Defense Department Employees (as well as retired military) have access to a portal called Army Knowledge Online (AKO). (For those in the Navy there's Navy Knowledge Online, I think.) Once you long into AKO there's an option to go to Army Libraries. Go to the alphabetized listings and you should be able to locate the NY Times with just a few more clicks. I don't know if other executive agencies - or agencies at any level of government - have similar portals for their employees. But it's possible.
If you have knowledge of public access to the NY Times let me know and I'll update this list as necessary. I suspect that your library card is probably your best bet.
OK
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Seven year ago plus
Well, you could do those things, but why bother? The Times has so consistently showed itself to be the paper of fabrication and bias that I can't imagine being interested in it. At least bloggers don't pretent to be neutral.
Posted by: Akivam at September 16, 2005 12:58 AMI am not sure that strategy will work. It will depend whether TimesSelect is structured for an institutional site license, or has limits on the number of users at a given time. I cannot get any reliable information on this. When I asked customer service about schools and libraries, the answer claimed that they would have paper subscriptions available.
Posted by: LisainVan at September 19, 2005 2:20 PM"The Times has so consistently showed itself to be the paper of fabrication and bias that I can't imagine being interested in it. At least bloggers don't pretend to be neutral."
True. Judith Miller covered up for Karl Rove, even though his actions fit the constitutional definition of treason, for about two years. But that's mostly because, like other journalistic institutions and intelligence agencies, the Times mostly favors a stable status quo, so their moles--- er, um, sources can promote into greater responsibility.
As may be, though... Just whom do you regard as a news source without "fabrication and bias"? Or is this a difference without a distinction?
Posted by: Hal O'Brien at September 19, 2005 7:16 PMAccording to the Times Select FAQ's, all Home Delivery Subscribers have free access to Times Select. Our library gets the NYT delivered every day, so all I had to do was enroll us in Times Select using our account number. This means the public should be able to access Times Select, in the same way that they come to the library and read our copy of the times for free. All they need is our NYT log-in. It seems too easy.
Posted by: Bri Johnson at September 20, 2005 12:29 PM