So, The New York Times, which has hundreds of obits ready, didn't have one for Howard Zinn?

[EFerrari]

They ran an AP obit:


Howard Zinn, Historian, Dies at 87

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 27, 2010

Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose book “A People’s History of the United States” became a million-selling leftist alternative to mainstream texts, died Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87 and lived in Auburndale, Mass.
Skip to next paragraph
Associated Press



The cause was a heart attack, his daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said.

Published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing of 5,000, “A People’s History” was, fittingly, a people’s best-seller, attracting a wide audience through word of mouth and reaching 1 million sales in 2003. Although Professor Zinn was writing for a general readership, his book was taught in high schools and colleges throughout the country, and numerous companion editions were published, including “Voices of a People’s History,” a volume for young people and a graphic novel.

“A People’s History” told an openly left-wing story. Professor Zinn accused Christopher Columbus and other explorers of committing genocide, picked apart presidents from Andrew Jackson to Franklin D. Roosevelt and celebrated workers, feminists and war resisters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/us/28zinn.html?scp=1&sq=Howard%20Zinn&st=cse

I'm so glad I dropped this fishwrap. Good luck with charging for content, guys.

[tonysam]

1. That happens more times than you think.

It isn't any kind of conspiracy on the part of the paper.

Lots and lots of prominent people's obits are put in the Times which are AP articles.

There are also times when the paper will publish its own obituary some days after the AP.

[niyad]

2. the nyt has about 400 obits ready --for celebs, lots of different people. the point is, nyt didn't

seem to think howard zinn was worth a standing obit, unlike, say, an anna nicole smith or some such.

[EFerrari]

4. Conspiracy? No, it's more of a dismissive gesture.

Zinn was arguably the most beloved public intellectual in the country and he was 87 years old.

Instead of at least having an in house notice, they run the AP obit which quotes Schlesinger as evidence that Zinn was not to be taken seriously. Schlesinger who has probably little or no following among young people.

'"Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. once said: “I know he regards me as a dangerous reactionary. And I don’t take him very seriously. He’s a polemicist, not a historian.”'

Whatever.

[tonysam]

18. No, it isn't. Lots of papers do it. Anyway here is the NYT obit,

not AP's:

Proudly, unabashedly radical, with a mop of white hair and bushy eyebrows and an impish smile, Mr. Zinn, who retired from the history faculty at Boston University two decades ago, delighted in debating ideological foes, not the least his own college president, and in lancing what he considered platitudes, not the least that American history was a heroic march toward democracy.

Almost an oddity at first, with a printing of just 4,000 in 1980, “A People’s History of the United States” has sold nearly two million copies. To describe it as a revisionist account is to risk understatement. A conventional historical account held no allure; he concentrated on what he saw as the genocidal depredations of Christopher Columbus, the blood lust of Theodore Roosevelt and the racial failings of Abraham Lincoln. He also shined an insistent light on the revolutionary struggles of impoverished farmers, feminists, laborers and resisters of slavery and war.

Such stories are more often recounted in textbooks today; they were not at the time.

“Our nation had gone through an awful lot — the Vietnam War, civil rights, Watergate — yet the textbooks offered the same fundamental nationalist glorification of country,” Mr. Zinn recalled in a recent interview with The New York Times. “I got the sense that people were hungry for a different, more honest take.”

More

[EFerrari]

19. What do you mean, "no, it isn't?" This isn't a schoolyard.

They didn't have an obit ready for him, even a temp one and they ran an appalling one from the AP.

[niyad]

3. when I posted this last night, I was appalled at the sneering tone of the ap obit.

[EFerrari]

5. Yep, apparently only Hollywood and rock stars admired Dr. Zinn.

What petty @ssholes at the AP.

[tom_paine]

6. The Corporate Aristocracy and it's Media Hologram never sleeps

It is there to create the most seamlessly opaque window and full hologram of lies that ever existed in human history.

[G_j]

7. that says it all

it's all propaganda these days

[glitch]

8. I am sure the spirit of Howard Zinn relishes their indifference.

To paraphrase Naomi Klein from this morning's Democracy Now and FDR's classic words from History.

IOW, the NYT only dishonors itself with actions like this.

[EFerrari]

9. It may be that the Editor wants to take some time and care over it

--- there is a note that says staff writers will produce their own. Even so.

[glitch]

10. I worked for a much smaller and less reputable newspaper in the 80s and we had obits

of everyone famous ready to go, especially people of advanced age. I am not buying it but I am glad to see they feel they need some cover.

AP, very shabby.

[SteppingRazor]

11. Did you read until the end of the story?

"A staff obituary by The New York Times will appear later."

You shouldn't confuse the paper's desire to get this news out there with its not intending to write an obit of its own.

[EFerrari]

12. Yes, I did, as I mentioned just above.

[SteppingRazor]

13. Right on. Pardon me while I eat my words. :)

I should've read the thread before commenting.

Anyway, I'd wait for the staff obit before castigating the Times. Like I said, they probably went with the wire story to fill the gap until they produced their own obit. It's just an effort to blend the dual necessities of timeliness and original content.

[EFerrari]

14. Oh, that's okay. That's my lunch today, too!

:)

[L0oniX]

15. IMO he was a national treasure.

[JackRiddler]

16. Yeah, that got me pretty angry yesterday, especially because the AP obit was so hostile

Like, how could they not have one ready for him?

I think the NYT partly made up for it today with the first line of their own obit, though:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/us/29zinn.html?hpw

Howard Zinn, Historian, Is Dead at 87

By MICHAEL POWELL
Published: January 28, 2010

Howard Zinn, historian and shipyard worker, civil rights activist and World War II bombardier, and author of “A People’s History of the United States,” a best seller that inspired a generation of high school and college students to rethink American history, died Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87 and lived in Auburndale, Mass.

The cause was a heart attack he had while swimming, his family said.

Proudly, unabashedly radical, with a mop of white hair and bushy eyebrows and an impish smile, Mr. Zinn, who retired from the history faculty at Boston University two decades ago, delighted in debating ideological foes, not the least his own college president, and in lancing what he considered platitudes, not the least that American history was a heroic march toward democracy.

Almost an oddity at first, with a printing of just 4,000 in 1980, “A People’s History of the United States” has sold nearly two million copies. To describe it as a revisionist account is to risk understatement. A conventional historical account held no allure; he concentrated on what he saw as the genocidal depredations of Christopher Columbus, the blood lust of Theodore Roosevelt and the racial failings of Abraham Lincoln. He also shined an insistent light on the revolutionary struggles of impoverished farmers, feminists, laborers and resisters of slavery and war.

Such stories are more often recounted in textbooks today; they were not at the time.

[scarletwoman]

17. Well, at least they noticed.

I mean, that's something, isn't it?

Sudden death by heart attack is so awful -- I can barely stand to think about it. I've lost two partners this way -- one moment they're here and alive and doing stuff, the next moment they're gone. It's just unbelievably heartwrenching. I feel such sadness for his family.

And I feel such sadness for all us, suddenly deprived of his eloquent and truly compassionate voice. Losing one of our of best thinkers -- and there is no one of his caliber to follow.

It makes me glad I'm old. I despair for our future when all our finest minds are gone. :cry:

sw