Free Maureen Dowd!

Free NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd!

As in you can now read your column for free even if you don't buy or subscribe to The New York Times.

I get a daily message in my email inbox from The Times with short summaries of major articles and columns and links to view the full articles. The same was true for their columnists, but a while back The Times introduced the TimesSelect program which put selected columnists behind a paywall. Sure, the charge was modest so I could have paid it, but I refused as a matter of principle.

Now, just last week The Times finally saw my reason and abandoned that paywall, saying:

Now, everyone is entitled to our opinions.

Effective September 19, 2007, TimesSelect has ended. Content previously published for TimesSelect is available free to all NYTimes.com visitors.

So, now I can once again read what Maureen Dowd has to say about Dubya, Rudy, or whomever or whatever, but the question is whether I would want to. I kind of got used to not reading her, Friedman, Krugman, Brooks, et al. It made my life a little simpler. Well, I guess I'll give it a try, if for no other reason than to celebrate the return of reason to The Times.

Now, if only the Wall Street Journal would take a similar tack. I say "Mr. Murdock, tear down this paywall!" We'll see if he is reading this blog and does what I tell him to, one of these days.

-- Jack Krupansky