The Ethicist

Whatever happened to The New York Times?

The once-great paper used to pride itself on not having comics, horoscopes, gossip columns and other such tabloid staples. But it lowered its standards a couple of years ago and started an advice column called The Ethicist. It's written by a wuss named Randy Cohen, and it appears weekly in the Times Magazine.

This column, the tone of which alternates between smug and sniveling, seems to be written for people who were never taught right and wrong. I rarely read it, and therefore am grateful to Direct Media's Larry May for sending me Cohen's half-baked answer to a fundraiser trying to create a list of potential donors.

“Last summer we worked on a voter registration drive,” Anonymous in Tucson asked. “My co-workers suggested that we add the names from registration forms to our database, pointing out that they are public information, and people can opt out of our list. Ethical?”

Here's the answer from the new Ann Landers:

“Junk mail is in the eye of the beholder, like conjunctivitis; you should not contribute to the spread of either. Even if you legally obtain public information and use it for only a worthy cause, you should get permission before adding anyone to your mailing list.”

He also warned that the group might “vex potential supporters by bombarding them with unwanted mail,” which shows his ignorance of nonprofit fundraising.

But here's the clincher: Cohen argues that lists “have a way of escaping and snaking off to other, less scrupulous, mailers where they proliferate wildly, the kudzu of postbox and cyberspace. To avoid fertilizing this noxious underbrush, you should invite people to opt in to your database, not just allow them to opt out.”

Is he serious? First of all, as Larry May points out, nonprofits tend to be protective of their lists. But Cohen should have disclosed that his own paper rents out its file.

A recent data card forwarded by Larry offers the names of more than 2 million Times subscribers and expires, selectable by gender, and all allegedly “educated, affluent and influential.” Nowhere does it say they opted in.

It also states: “While many publishers' revenues are driven primarily through ad sales, The New York Times also enjoys strong subscription revenues.”

Well, how does the Ethicist think that comes about? Has he ever reflected that any curtailing of this benign process might land his butt out on the street?

(By the way, the Times' data card was updated in December, the same month Cohen's article appeared.)

We've got some advice for both Cohen and Anonymous. Next time you have a question about lists, call us. We'll refer you to someone like Larry May, who knows what he's talking about.