"There was even a half-joking reference to the readership spike that came after an initial foray on Twitter by the new executive editor, Dean Baquet, who had priased coverage of a Brooklyn funeral and provided a link."
I clicked on the link. Normally, I tend to avoid stories that cover funerals. Perhaps it's because I'm not sure what a journalist's role would be at such a gathering but also because I feel uncomfortable looking at photos or vision people who are grieving and in distress.
A few weeks ago, I hesitantly clicked on a photo gallery that showed community members gathering outside a local Catholic church to farewell a young father who had taken his own life. I felt guilty for clicking the link and wondered whether the coverage was necessary as the gallery loaded. But ultimately I found myself feeling really heartened that so many people turned out to pay their respects and say goodbye. The street was familiar to me, which helped me comprehend just how many people had attended the service, or had tried to, from the photos it looked as though the crowd was spilling onto the footpath and road.
I was struck by the writing in this story about a child's funeral in New York. It has just the right amount of detail and felt direct, yet personal. I always enjoy articles from The New York Times, and it's largely to do with their unique writing style as well as their beautiful photographs. Their writing style is routinely observational, personal and factual, making it a pleasure to read.
You can get a few glimpses into The New York Times in these docos:
Bill Cunningham's New York (a beautiful character piece, I really loved this doco and gave it to VM one year for her birthday)
I also picked up 'My Life in The New York Times' by Ross Bleckner from Kinokuniya last year, which is a wonderful book of collage created from pages and pages of the newspaper.
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