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TP: You seem to write from the left, yet your tone so much different than that of, say, The Nation, The Progressive, or Monthly Review. Why do you think so much lefty journalism is unbelievably dull?
MT: First of all, I'm really not so sure what the word "left" means and I'm never comfortable when people call me a lefty. If anyone were to ever ask, I'd say I'm probably more of a libertarian than anything else. I believe in capitalism, small government, etc. I have doubts about Roe v. Wade (for the same reason I'm against the national drug laws). So I don't think I fit exactly in that category. But none of that is important anyway - I mean, if you can tell exactly what a writer's politics are, he's probably not a very good writer.
As for why the left's writers are dull, that's probably the reason - anybody who's doctrinaire is also always going to be dull. If I know what your opinion is going to be on any subject, why should I bother reading you? Plus, most of the left's writers are like Democratic politicians in general - always worried about offending somebody. And they're always trying to stay on message. There is something there left over from the old communist dictum about art for art's sake being dangerous and unorthodox. What's most infuriating about this is that humor is the most subversive force there is. If you can become the place where people go to laugh at the system, you will attract all the dissenting energy in the population. But the American left has no sense of humor and no sense of fun at all. And so the would-be revolutionaries all avoid them like the plague, go into day-trading and shit like that.
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TP: Why did you leave the New York Press? Did they shitcan you? You seem to be getting a lot of attention, why WOULDN'T they want to keep you and your readers?
MT: Okay, first of all, The New York Press is going conservative, so I wouldn't have fit in their lineup anyway. But I'll tell you what happened here. You should know that when the former owner, the conservative writer Russ Smith (aka Mugger), sold the paper, he negotiated an arrangement with the new management whereby he kept his column at an exorbitant fee price, and could not be fired. This was a condition of the sale. So Koyen and, later, Alex Zaitchik couldn't fire this guy, even though he a.) sucked, b.) was grossly insubordinate in print, constantly savaging the paper and its contributors, showing an utter lack of collegial loyalty, and c.) took a huge bite out of the contributor budget, even during times when the paper was hopelessly strapped for money.
If you look back, you'll find numerous examples of Smith blasting other Press contributors in his column (including and especially me, repeatedly saying that I was headed for the funny farm, a nut, and an immature lefty extremist); what readers didn't know is that in most of those cases, Smith was collecting his giant fee every week, while the rest of us who were the targets of his literary pseudo-wrath were going unpaid as the paper struggled. In other words, Smith was not only an editorial deadweight on the staff, but he had the nerve to rip the other contributors who were making sacrifices for the paper - while he sat, fully paid, in his Manhattan townhouse, watching the Red Sox on NESN.
In the year 2003-2004, The New York Press racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts to contributors and vendors. There was a lot of mismanagement that went on at the paper during this period that was not at all (and I stress that, not at all) the fault of Jeff and Alex. The mess went on at a level above them. It should be noted that these to guys both had to somehow keep the pages filled for a period of about a full calendar year where NOBODY among the contributors - except Russ - was getting paid on a regular basis. That they even managed to keep writers from leaving during this period ought to say something about how all the writers felt about them.
All the same, it was a terrible position that management put these guys in - they had to run a paper by begging New York City writers to contribute for free. Moreover, the paper invested nothing in marketing or personnel during this time. In return for doing that thankless job, what did they get? They got a). blamed for the whole mess, and b). pushed out. The whole thing was completely slimy. I'm not saying that anyone is entitled to keep an editor job - bosses always have a right to fire employees when the numbers aren't right - but what happened to those guys was a joke, considering what was going on in the rest of the company.
The NYP management didn't fix their financial problems until about a year ago, which means that Koyen had about a half a year of being a paying editor before he was forced out. Management clearly made up its mind around the time of Koyen's departure to make the changes it's just made now, which necessarily included my leaving - I obviously wouldn't have fit the new concept, which I understand. Among others, I believe that Russ Smith was a primary influence behind the scenes in making these changes. (The new editor, Harry Siegel, is a Smith protégé) I think Russ has wanted the paper to go back to being a conservative outlet ever since he sold it, and I understand that. But I think the way he went about it - forcing himself editorially on the paper, and blasting his colleagues in print over the objections of editors who could not stop him - I think that was totally unprofessional.
The whole thing is a petty little story that obviously shouldn't be of much interest to anyone. The only reason I'm complaining about it publicly is that I'm upset about the way things worked out there. I really liked being part of The New York Press. I'm sure there are people out there who can imagine how upsetting it is for me to see it turned into a dumb neocon rag that will doubtless be full of war cheerleading and screeds about the exciting possibilities of social security privatization and prison construction. It's a little bit like seeing your sister marry a fast food lobbyist.
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