No longer a Times man...

Just cancelled my NY Times subscription. At $15/mth, it was just a tad too much - especially as they have what can only be described as an "erratic" billing cycle. It's like EZ-Pass: they wait until you can't possibly afford it, and then go grab the money from your bank account with nary a "thanks". The bank, despite being instructed to not allow any overdraft, puts the account into overdraft and that month's subscription is suddenly $60 or more. (At least they're not like Chase used to be: those Greedy Buggers would put the account into overdraft, penalize you and then rescind the charge, but not the penalty. It was a "sequential" thing that most banks did, until the regulators stepped in and said "stop that". I'll note that those regulators didn't appear during the last Republican Administration.)

So while I enjoy Gail Collins and Linda Greenhouse, they're not enough to keep me reading it. And, to be honest, there's not that much in the Times that isn't available elsewhere, but without the now-ridiculous effort to keep the coverage "balanced". How do you balance the loony-tunes effort of the Tea Party?

The Guardian and The Washington Post are it. (It helps that they're both quality broadsheets and they're both still free!) The HuffPo is also available if I want the (generally) more sensational take on things. And then, of course, there's the BBC, along with the Safari-browser challenging CNN. And their Wall St/City coverage has become uninspired over the last couple of years.

Years ago, the NY Post or Daily News - I forget which - called me and asked if I wanted a subscription. With some pride, I told them "No, thanks. I'm a Times man". No longer. I'm a little sad about that, to be honest.

Carolyn Ann