New York Times: All the Headlines Fit to Print

If you bought an April 3rd edition of the New York Times Newspaper and opened it up to page A8 (my picture attached), you'd see the following headline:

A North American Treaty Organization Without America?

This is listed under "News Analysis" of the so-called paper of record. It was written by Steven Erlanger. It's my understanding that sometimes an editor picks the headline and not the column author. Or perhaps both are responsible for this fun "Gulf of America" inspired headline. Maybe the Atlantic has been renamed the American Ocean when I wasn't looking.

At first I thought maybe the headline or article was the result of some history-challenged, woke journalist kid fresh out of some program from a big-name school. I decided to read the NYT bio of Mr Erlanger. This is what it includes:

Steven Erlanger

I am the chief diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times, covering Europe. I’m based in Berlin.

What I Cover

Foreign policy, European policy, diplomacy, conflict, migration, integration. More recently, NATO, American foreign policy, Russia and the war in Ukraine.

My Background

I studied political philosophy and government at Harvard, taught in the Kennedy School of Government, and having grown up with the Vietnam War, went to Woodstock and fell happily into journalism, first at The Boston Globe, then, in 1987, at The Times. I have reported from more than 120 countries, some of them gone, and been bureau chief in London, Bangkok, Moscow, Paris, Jerusalem, Berlin, Brussels, Prague and Belgrade, as well as chief diplomatic correspondent in Washington. Among other awards, I have shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, one for Al Qaeda in 2002 and one for Russia in 2017.

Journalistic Ethics

I aspire to be fair and empathic, to listen more than speak, to have my own opinion on what I cover to be something of a mystery, to be clear, analytical and thoughtful, even, at times, original. I think The Times, to which I have devoted my career, has a special place in our political life, one that carries enormous responsibility. I try to live up to that responsibility. You can learn more about The Times’s ethics policy here.

Hum, so Mr Erlanger went to Woodstock (no spring chicken) and "more recently" started covering NATO, etc. Expanding your career roles and covering and learning new things is indeed exciting, regardless of age. Perhaps the first thing to do when covering a story is to learn abbreviations or jargon. He studied at Harvard and taught in the Kennedy School of Government, so this should come naturally to him. Learning a long list of alphabet words is standard for government stuff. Maybe the headline of "North American Treaty Organization" was simply intended as some kind of word play and "without America" was inspired by some old Woodstock? Get it? Me neither. Maybe, I would if that's what NATO stood for. Perhaps we can read his article to learn that the purpose of NATO is: "Keep the Europeans down, the Americans out, and the Russians (and ally Iran) supplying the oil and gas in". Yes, I think that's how I remember the short-hand description. As a sweetener, he's based in Berlin.

Since the NYT has popular word puzzles and games, why not incorporate that here? Let's get the award-winning journalist Steven Erlanger to include a question for the readers to solve:

What does the acronym NATO mean?

(a) New Amsterdam Trade Organization

(b) National American Trump Orange-Organization

(c) North American Treaty Organization

(d) No Americans Treaty Organization

(e) None of the Above

(f) All of the Above

(g) or finally both answers (b) and (b) a second time.

So, as for the correct answer... hold on to buy next week's Erlanger foreign policy column. You'll get no spoilers from me.

At least the NYT can easily change the headline on their online platform, and nobody will be the wiser. See, paper copies still have a purpose :-)