West Point Reading Requirements

[Annie]

Jeff, is this true?

http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/2006/11/reading-nyt-at-west-point.html

Reading the NYT at West Point

James Taranto points to the comments of Jill Abramson, managing editor of the New York Times.

One reader asks managing editor Jill Abramson what the Times is doing to attract younger readers. In the course of her answer Abramson lets slip: "People are always surprised when I tell them that we sell a lot of subscriptions at West Point."

Today, Taranto prints a couple of letters from former cadets at West Point. The reason they have so many subscriptions there is because cadets are required to subscribe to the paper. As one West Point alumnus writes in,

"Even back in the 1980s we knew of the leftist slant of the Times and asked our superiors why we had to read the New York Times, since it wasn't very pro-military. The reply often was: 'It's good to know what the enemy is thinking.' "
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UPDATE: If the army wants cadets to be up on current events, why force them to pay for the NYT? Why not just let them read the Washington Post for free online? Why should anyone in this day and age be forced to pay for a newspaper subscription when so many papers give their content away? Of course, the cadets would miss out on the musings of Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman, but they'll recover, I'm sure. And if the aim is to give the cadets an insight into conventional political wisdom as filtered through the New York Times bien pensants, they can still get all the news that's fit to print for free online. Let's teach those cadets the value of frugality!

Welcome to Instapundit readers. Thanks to Glenn for the link.

posted by Betsy permalink 11:36 AM

 

[Kagom]

I believe it is true. I had a friend who went to school at West Point and they had to read not only the Times, Washington Post, etc.

 

[Hobbit]

When I was at the Naval Academy, we got to choose a newspaper from a list to subscribe to. We had to read, for comprehension, at least 2 articles a day.

 

[William Joyce]

I'm sure brass has good intentions here. The NYT is liberal but still the "paper of record" for the U.S. They want cadets to be worldly and wise. I'm sure West Pointers are bright enough to see the liberal bias where it appears.

 

[Abbey Normal]

On a positive note, it will help to prepare cadets for the multitude of biased articles that will be written about them when they serving.