An incredible story on the front page of today's New York Times Arts Section. [See: Music Critic vs. Maestro: One Loses His Beat]
In an astonishing development, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has just removed their top music critic Donald Rosenberg from the symphony beat because of his somewhat harsh view of the Cleveland Symphony's conductor, Franz Welser-Möst.
This raises serious questions, to put it mildly.
By caving to pressure from the orchestra to remove Rosenberg from reviewing them, the paper is punishing a critic for being too opinionated. Isn't that what they get paid for?
The description in the Times article of how the decision was made and delivered casts shades of Orwell:
It is difficult to tell exactly what happened in Cleveland, a city that takes exceptional pride in its orchestra, perhaps the major source of whatever national or international cultural luster the city has.
By Mr. Rosenberg’s account he met with Ms. Goldberg, who has been editor of the paper for a little over a year, on Sept. 17. “She called me in and said they were making a change, and I would no longer be covering the Cleveland Orchestra,” Mr. Rosenberg recounted.
She told him that the “situation had become untenable for the newspaper,” Mr. Rosenberg said. “She said my reviews were unfair, and I was attacking the orchestra.” Ms. Goldberg also said that she wanted broader coverage of the orchestra, he added. “I don’t know what that means. In the 16 years I’ve been here I’ve written every kind of story imaginable.”
Terrance C. Z. Egger, the newspaper’s publisher — who is also on the orchestra’s board — did not return a call seeking comment.
Mr. Rosenberg said that after Ms. Goldberg took over as editor, letters criticizing his views on Mr. Welser-Möst continued to come in, and that orchestra executives including the executive director, Gary Hanson, expressed concern about the coverage — “which means me,” Mr. Rosenberg added.
Of course, newspapers caving to pressure regarding their Arts coverage is nothing new. Hell, the Grey Lady even polled readers when it decided to completely overhaul its calendar format last year.
And in Boston, few people are old enough to remember how former Globe Music Critic Richard Dyer got his job. As an undergraduate at Harvard, he used to write letters excoriating the "inept" music criticism on its pages. He wrote so many of these poison pen missives that shortly after his graduation, the Globe fired the man who'd been the brunt of Mr. Dyer's rants and hired Dyer to replace him.
Ah, what a world, what a world!