TimesSelect: The Self-muzzling Left!

I'd always wondered who emailed Maureen Dowd's or Frank Rich's columns to their friends. (Actually, I knew who they were: most of them live on NYC's upper west side and populate message boards like UrbanBaby and the kvetch-a-thon parent email group at my kid's private school.) But still, I'd always been amazed to see Dowd's vapid posturing at the top of the list of the NYT's "Most E-Mailed" list. However, thanks to the NYT's decision to start charging for on line access to the writings of solons like Dowd, Rich and Krugman, this dangerous dissemination of left wing thought on the internet has been sharply reduced.

Of course, we have no hard data, but comparing the list of "Most E-Mailed" for the last 30 days (half pre TimesSelect and half post) with the list for the last 7 days (all post-TimesSelect) highlights some interesting patterns.

Over the last 30 days, 15 of the top 25 emailed articles were opinion pieces, including 7 of the 10 most e-mailed, and all of these were e-mailed prior to the introduction of TimesSelect on September 19th. Of these 15 e-mailed opinion columns, 60% were by red meat, anti-Bushies like Dowd (5 of 15), Rich (2), or Krugman (2). None of the most e-mailed articles for the last 30 days were part of the TimesSelect restricted content.

Over the last 7 days, in the post-TimesSelect world, only 8 of the top 25 e-mailed articles were opinion pieces, including only 2 of the top 10 most e-mailed (and neither of these were TimesSelect content). Only 3 TimeSelect columns were listed, including one each by Dowd (coming in at number 20), Rich (23rd most e-mailed), and Krugman (24th).

All I can say is excellent work, ladies and gentlemen.