Hey, I was with you and your mom! I rarely miss one of your columns and am thankful you cover so many important topics related to happenings in this country and all over the world that we might never have heard about. In fact, I'm about trumped out, since everyone writes about the man whose name I can't bring myself to capitalize--and much more likely to skip a column about him than one on any other topic. Please don't change your focus; you are one of a kind in the amount and diversity of your interests and reporting.
129
You are one of my favorites, Nick. I always read when I see your by-line. Merry Christmas.
62
Your problem is that you see the whole big wide world, with the life it supports, on a scale that most people don't come in contact with daily; they are removed from much of it. The Pacific Trail for example, or slave trading little girls, etc. However, I think your perspective is enduring and something historians will value immensely rather than what shoes the first lady wears. That says it all about the main media and its supporters. Solzhenitsyn's last warning to the US upon returning to his homeland was his worry that our obsession with pop culture would be the downfall of the country. Trump would be "pop" in his mind, for sure. Would it have been not so dangerous....
69
Please continue to write about all of your views and experiences. We enjoy and are enriched by your voice!
55
I learned about Kiva, and the opportunity to give micro loans, from one of your columns. Thank you!
25
One can wonder,
if one is allowed to on the New York Times Comment Page,
whether this reveals something about Liberals.
Much more interested in damning Trump
then helping the unfortunate around the world.
14
In the best way, Kristof is a true bleeding heart and sets a great example for basic human decency. The problem is that he makes me feel bad for not caring as much as he does. He doesn't induce guilt by lecturing or hectoring. No. He just lays out terrible facts and then suggests ways things can be improved. Worse, he sometimes suggests things that I might actually do. It's much easier to get mad about the Dementor in Chief, post some acidic typographic pixels and feel that I've done my job as a citizen and a human.
Kristof annoys me. How can he care so much about others? I'd just as soon put on a hair shirt for the day as read another one of his do-gooder columns.
That's why Nick doesn't always get my click.
But even without a click his influence is felt. The value of what he does isn't always found in web analytics. May he keep up the good work! A hair shirt unworn is still a hair shirt noticed.
64
Like many Americans I am geographically challenged. I can’t speak with knowledge of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. To quote Trump, there were bad people on many sides. Foreign politics, wars, etc generally don’t draw me in. Challenge me to look at an issue from a different perspective. The underdog taking on a giant and winning. Places of interest. Fact based analysis of pending legislation and policies. I’m tired of propaganda. Keep doing what you love. Thanks
15
Dear Nicholas Kristof: You are a Rock Star of Journalism! Your columns are important and well written -- and that photo of you is priceless! Your mom did a Great job raising you. Please keep making us smarter and more compassionate in the New Year. Peace on Earth to you and yours.
44
You say our greatest security threat is Ebola.
Writers like you always refer to "Ebola epidemics."
Ebola was first recognized as existing in 1976. Between 1976 and 2013, there were a total of 1,716 cases in the world. That's an average of 46 cases a year. Worldwide.
In the 2013-2016 Ebola "epidemic" in West Africa, there were 28, 616 cases, with 11,310 deaths. The three countries that had all but 25 of those cases, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea, have a combined population of 24.3 million people. That comes out to 1 case for every 849 people; 1 death for every 2148 people.
That's a lower death rate than that of trypanosomiasis in the US.
Ebola is not an epidemic disease. It cannot cause epidemics like bubonic plague, typhoid, influenza, or any of the other historic plague causers. It kills too fast to ever be an epidemic. It burns so hot, it quickly burns out. In all the history of the world before modern medical care, there has never been an Ebola epidemic. Any doctor knows that.
The fact that you consider it our "biggest security threat" is revealing.
5
Readers of the print NYTs don't get counted in 'clicks' - I wonder if print readers read differently, are proportionately older or other factors, and how can (is) their readership represented? Or maybe, since their participation can't go 'viral' they no longer count at all?
23
Conpassion fatigue is a big part of the problem hereunto. Hola many foreign messesc can a person care and to?
6
Thank you for your September 9 column on the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar. It may not have received much attention, but your writing on this atrocity had my wife and I in tears for hours. Nothing that's appeared in the Times in recent years has had such an impact on our humble lives, with the possible exception of the headline on November 9, 2016 announcing Donald Trump as the president-elect.
22
The most important revelation here is that Mr. Kristof can't give raw numbers for the clicks and shares of his columns, because they are proprietary. What that means is that advertisers pay more if their ads are placed in articles that are heavily clicked on. We are also told that Trump articles get high click numbers, a sure explanation for the fact that every Times editorial page has several anti-Trump pieces.
The Times editorial pages are a commodity sold to advertisers and whoever gets the most clicks surely gets favored treatment from the newspaper. It isn't the quality of the writing or the thinking that sells. It's the number of clicks. And you thought the Times was a meritocracy.
10
Thank you so much for writing this - please do this every year. I, for one, am going back and reading your "worst" stories - the ones that shouldn't have been lost in the Trumpomania.
16
Boy am I glad to see this column, and this opportunity to respond.
I thought your worst column ever -- or at least your worst sentence -- was "Is This Genocide?" on December 15. You wrote:
"In the past I’ve referred to Myanmar’s atrocities against its Rohingya Muslim minority as 'ethnic cleansing,' but increasingly there are indications that the carnage may amount to genocide."
My god. It's always been genocide.
I've never understood how the mass media let themselves be duped into using "ethnic gobbledygooking." It's always been a euphemism for genocide. Always. And yet from the first time it was used -- as I recall, in the Serbian horrors in the ’90s when a general used the phrase -- the press lapped it up and it became standard usage. It was clearly a PR euphemism, and yet dumb reporters ate it up and passed it round, and now nothing can kill the murderous hypocrisy.
A columnist of your stature should never have been so duped. The above sentence just had me holding my sinking head. I can't believe it, I can't believe it. Kristof's one of the best, maybe my favorite, especially for his trips to really hazardous countries to try to tell us what's going on. How could he be so dumb?
10
To do what Nick Kristof does takes lots of courage. Now if he would only read Proust . . .
4
I want to say please continue your columns for your mom and yourself. You say that they are your "worst columns," but in my mind they are among your best. Who wants to hear the latest pathological lies coming from this non-president??? I certainly don't! Your most despised columns would be great reading for him once he learns how. Keep all of your columns coming!
As a footnote, you ask, "Am I a Christian?" I think we make becoming one all too difficult. It's really so easy to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. When you are ready, let us know. In the meantime, I shall be praying for you.
5
You are a good writer Mr.Kristof ! You write on different subjects in easy & neutral style , by the way , I am a writer and I feel that only few people read my articles , usually I am happy if I find 3 to 5 readers admiring them ,while there are thousands following you .
With best wishes , Aldawas , Kuwait
16
Thank you for reminding us of these great issues. We do rather waste a lot of time saying the same thing over and over about awful Trump and his awful predacious and enabling colleagues and cronies.
Our cup of trouble runneth over, but that's no reason to ignore the ways we can shine a line on and help people who deserve better from us. I have another one for you: a real climate solution in Ecosystem Restoration:
https://www.ecosystemrestorationcamps.org/
11
the average person would rather endow certain people with moral fortitude and passion the abilities and resources to pursue humanitarian needs rather than have to spend their time crusading for every child or fighting in every battle themselves. We want heroes, not to be heroes. A common theme I take away from much of your writing about the topic is sheer helplessness. Interviewing people that are fighting the injustice, but little about how they succeed at their fight.
I'm in China right now, and I recently met Chung To, a wall street banker who returned to China as a philanthropist to try and provide relief to orphans of the aids epidemic. He was jailed for a while by the Chinese government for basically his ngo activity. Chung To said in an interview to his alma mater university he would not take on the Chinese government, that although it would make him the darling of western media he wouldn't be allowed to then help the people he wanted to help.
He's been free and able to pursue his charity work for a while now, and has been greatly successful with getting kids the job training and life care to become successful adults themselves. My question to you is do you think of this as a story worth covering? I partly think he wouldn't fit one of your columns because he is succeeding by not going to direct conflict with repression. The other part just thinks he might not make it just because he is succeeding.
6
I particularly value your columns about the political and social crises in the developing world. Your recommendations of worthwhile organizations for donations have help guide my Christmas giving decisions.
Thank you.
15
Please keep up the important reporting on international affairs and social injustice. You are uniquely qualified. We are grateful for the Times publishing such columns. (Professor Emeritus, School of Journalism, The University of Texas.)
27
Beautiful work, sir - even your worst columns give me hope that all will eventually be well
10
Unfortunately for you Americans are a very parochcal people, they just are much interested in foreign places and people. But, please keep up your comments and visits around the world, your are a source that is all too rare,
7
always read your column. Don't stop.
14
Don't assume that your least read columns are necessarily your worst. In fact, some of them may be among your best, vut may deal with topics your readers aren't ready to think about,
5
Dude, put Trump in the foreign news stories. Viola!
1
I suspect the child marriage column attracted so much attention primarily because of the perverse sex angle.
2
I always read your columns.
8
Your headline is misleading. "Worst Columns" does not equate to worst read columns and you know that. I am a fan of yours but not impressed by this column in the least. It is liked being asked in an interview for your worst quality and telling the interviewer "I am too much of a perfectionist."
9
Your worst columns were “A little respect for Doctor Foster,” and “Where’s the empathy?” The first because you tried to make a hero of an obviously negligent parent who obviously cared nothing about his family while he did his work.
The second is because you blamed everyone else for the misfortunes your friend, Kevin Green, in the main brought upon himself, and then you did nothing to help him.
I have to say that many of these columns, while extremely worthy, are not op-eds: they are not controversial. Is anyone arguing that solving clubfoot is a bad thing? That trafficking in children is OK? These humanitarian columns would do better in another section. People come to the 0p-ed section to read about genuine controversies.
6
I love your columns. They range from uplifting (such as the one on correcting club feet) to downright terrifying (the articles on North Korea and the accompanying video.) They are always a topic of discussion at our house. Thanks.
3
Ok, haven't read any comments yet, but my first reaction to your 'worst read columns' was...those were the ones that fired me up the most ! Apparently I am unusual [but I read all the trump ones also..]. My thinking : Perhaps most people want a lift from the news by assuming that articles about trump would raise their spirits? (impeachment, 25 amendment?) But I strongly believe that you are a true journalist who proclaims the news the way the world is seen by most...good, bad, and indifferent. Which means we need to pay attention to all of it, sort it out, decide what is important to us, and act accordingly.
4
Kristof, hang in there. Like most of the readers commenting here, I’m with you. Trump focused columns are like cookies. We like it when you serve us steak, too. More filling. More nutritious!
5
There's a reason these columns are not read: they're not credible, coming from the complacency of a mainstream journalism which routinely promotes American empire and the myths of our (and its own) goodness.
You know, like, journalists who promote aggressive wars. And endorse establishment candidates responsible for unimaginable misery, then lecture others on pragmatism and lack of compassion. And give bad advice and counsel bad policy, and suffer no consequences for it.
Moral authority really doesn't come cheap.
Nicholas, I enjoy most of your columns, but the Kevin Cooper column was indeed a clunker. Why? You had many of the facts wrong, and you omitted any reference to much of the information which supports the prosecution's case. Living in the area where that heinous crime occurred, I have followed the case for decades and I know the story quite well. You did not get that one right, and perhaps it serves you well that that column was not well read, because I know you don't want to spread disinformation.
1
Consider your non-Trumpian columns as a sanity saver, Mr. Kristof. Although I avidly consume your colleague, Charles Blow's, excellent work, I do worry whether he will end up mumbling to himself by the time that his evil protagonist is finally impeached. Perhaps you could occasionally and gently suggest to him another topic, for a op-Ed that only his mother would read. Peace to you and yours.
2
Funny article Nicholas,
Your perspective is always refreshing and illuminating...and a lack of clicks towards your electronic op-ed doesn't mean your articles aren't being read (those of us who get the hard copy on our driveways find your views good reading while making our way towards work on metro).....
Happy holidays and new year to you too!
2
Given, Mr. Kristoff, your visceral hatred of Trump, and the tendency for the Times reader to hyperventilate whenever his name appears in print, is it any mystery why your anti-Trump columns were more widely read?
My question is just how much of this is a quiet conspiracy by those of the Fourth Estate to pump the bottom lines of newspapers and line the wallets of writers, editors, and columnists in dollar bill.
I'll be most interested in your take on the tax reform bill that was just passed come January when the provisions take effect.
I'm quiet sure that you won't pass on the added dollars to organizations that deworm children...
But if you do, I am sure that you will make full use of the deduction that you can still claim on your taxes.
Kristof, write about what you know about and is important.. Most everybody writes about Trump, and I don't need to ever see his name in your column! Keep up your great contribution. God bless.
4
Frankly, I read about as much as I can stand. I'm 76 1/2, and have been reading the NYT, Herald Tribune, NYDN, etc., for about 70 years. It's enough to wear you out sometimes. Almost all of it is some form of bad news, a human tragedy. It's not personal that I don't always read your column. I only have so much capacity for that type of story. I've stopped reading so much about Trump--I'm worn out there, and if by some "miracle" he goes, Pence won't be any better. We've got them for 3 more years, minimum. Gotta save my strength-- this is a marathon under heavy machine gun fire, and I want to do what I can to help further Liberalism. Keep at it, and thanks for looking at yourself. Interesting what one finds there! Maybe another column there?
8
Mr. Kristof,
I regularly read your column, and that includes your self-proclaimed "clunkers". They may be that based on how many people who read them, but they're some of your best columns, not your worst. Offhand, I remember your columns about Ebola, clubfoot, and child marriage in America. These were some of your best columns.
Your best columns are off the beaten track, where much of the western world has no interest in going. Yes, many are stories of misery, but in publishing them, you afflict the comfortable, and I'm willing to bet that at least in some cases (e.g. your purchasing a slave to show it could be done), comfort the afflicted. If that isn't great reporting, I don't know what is.
I appreciate your honesty in stating that not all your columns are good, and being willing to acknowledge that publicly; most reporters won't. However, I'll suggest revising your criteria for what constitutes a clunker.
5
Mr. Kristof, please don't be dismayed. Because of your column about Christmas gift giving, in my daughter's name, with her blessing, we donated to Deworm the World. Without your words, we would have been ignorant of the problem. Chin up! You do good.
5
I find the Trump stuff as tragic as a train crash. I really liked the one which said how many people got electricity every day and other improvements in the human condition. Honduras does not register as an improvement in the human condition. I will find the strength to read all your stuff when stupid is not in power globally.
I don't read any of the op-ed Trump columns. I already know he's a jerk, tell me something i don't know. Didn't read many of the overseas columns either, mainly for the reasons Richard Lutttengen already mentioned. The North Korea columns were great though.
Don't know how many clicks it got, but i deeply appreciated the column on the volunteer dentists and optometrists. This is a travesty, and something i very rarely hear about elsewhere. Articles elsewhere have discussed the power of the Dental lobby, and a look at the donors of many of our Dem legislators might help explain why dental seemed to be missing from the ACA. Bernie Sanders included both in his single payer plan.
3
Embarrassed I didn't catch the one about Kevin Cooper. He was all over the news in Southern California back at the time of his trial. And this is the absolute first I've heard that he was likely framed by the police. That's really huge.
Nick, it may be cold comfort coming from a 77 year old Democratic expat from New York (40 years ago) but yours is the first editorial piece I look for every morning on my online edition of the Times. Thank you for your well written, well researched and often searing pieces. Your recent "is this genocide" needs to be read by everyone on the planet.
3
Nick, it's not articles about Trump that we are drawn to. It's articles about the crisis our country faces because of him. Once he is booted out of office, deprived of any power to do the world harm, we will never want to hear about him again.
11
Hang in there Nicholas! I may not read all of your columns, but I certainly deeply appreciate your effort of going out into the world and reporting on various significant issues. Your recent column on the horrible situation in Myanmar brought me to tears
3
I read most of your columns because they make me think and I appreciate that. You may not always be on trend but you do a good job of informing us of things we should know about. Please keep doing what you're doing.
3
Keep on keeping on, Mr. Kristof.
You columns are incredibly informative and your commitment to mankind offers a ray of hope in a bleak and cynical environment.
Have a happy, healthy, and peaceful New Year, sir.
5
In the introduction to his novel Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut is sitting with his friend and is asked if this new book is an "anti-war book." "Yes,' he says. "Why not write an anti-glacier book" he is then asked.
Which is why people don't read the social justice columns.
2
"As noted, the common thread of these poorly read columns was, disconcertingly, a spotlight on injustice or humanitarian needs, and my Trump-related columns received incomparably greater readership."
In the event you are reading this comment, Mr. Kristof, don't despair. Correlation does not necessarily mean causation. There could be other factors involved. Did you take into consideration the dates on which certain columns were published? It's possible that some of your columns on overseas humanitarian issues coincided with holiday periods in the United States when fewer readers are likely to be reading newspapers altogether.
If more of us read your op-ends we would be much better informed about America and this big world we are all part of.
Keep up your great work!
2
You have opened a window on the world for many of us Mr. Kristof and I am very appreciative. I have read every single column you have written since I started my subscription with the NYT. You have given so many of us understanding of the rest of the world. Keep it up.
3
Trump is attractive in the same way a car wreck at the side of the road, being tended to be 'first responders' is to those driving by. People slow down, rubberneck, can't tear their eyes away. Trump is an ongoing train wreck, he'll be good for plenty of clicks, for as long as he lasts. Sure, he's 'low-hanging fruit' for columnists, but don't feel guilty about going to this well too often -- the public needs to keep attention on Trump, and keep being reminded that 'Trump is not normal, what Trump does and says is not normal, and it never should get to be normal.' Take your attention away from Trump for a bit, and Trump will just be worse. I don't believe we have hit 'Trump bottom' yet, though it is a shame his latest daily excrescence has not reached there... So please, keep reminding people that along with the overseas excesses and tragedies that happen, we have our own domestic car wreck, train wreck, forest fire, hurricane, tornado of disaster ongoing in Washington DC.
5
OK!
To make you feel better I just made a donation to BRAC. I read your holiday giving guide article when it first came out and was tempted to donate...but I didn't - but now I did!
AM
Queens
1
Nicholas, I appreciate your humanitarian articles the most, among all the great pieces that you do. Thanks for bringing our attention to these issues, and thanks for the NYT for supporting your work.
2
"Miracle Feet" was a wonderful column. 51 years ago my son was born with clubbed feet. He had surgery. I donated to the website you mentioned to help other children. Thank you. It meant a lot to me.
4
Clickbait is snacked on quickly and disappears from memory.
Your columns are thought-provoking, inspire us to action, and to conversation with many who have not read them.
Your columns are the most significant. Without them I don't know whether I would continue to subscribe to the Times.
10
N.K., I tend to read the columns that most of your readers tend not to read. Usually forgoing stories about Trump, I like the international stories because you convey the perspective of different cultures. Even though I may not agree with your position on a particular issue, just to know how other societies live and think is pretty interesting. And I love your animal welfare articles !
6
Fear not, Nicholas. I sometimes - though rarely - disagree with you, but your "worst" columns outshine the best of many contributors to other media.
21
Nick--I read them all. They are uniformly good and inspiring. Keep up the good work. Be unrelenting. Steve
7
They aren't your "worst" columns.
They may be your least read, but not a one is "bad" in any sense.
Thanks for the compilation. I had missed several.
6
False advertising, Mr. Kristof. I was hoping you'd list the columns that most angered or appalled your readers and earned the most blowback. It might be enlightening for you (and cathartic for us) to review your weakest and most out-of-touch essays, but I guess that's too much to ask.
8
Another chance Nick & NYT editors? Now that the daily Whitehouse horror show is expected, I may not be so distracted, feeling fearful or confused. I admit to overlooking other important news of the day around the world and in my community. I am coming up for air and having a look around more often. Please continue to write those important stories. Bless you.
11
I DID read your holiday giving guide -- and made good use of it, donating not only for myself, but also for other family members. Thank you for your suggestions -- and also for all your humanitarian coverage. So many issues are not confined to the U.S., but are global.
14
I actually don't read your column much although my wife does. I don't know if it's just me but I find it more difficult now to focus much attention on the world when things are so bleak here at home. It's not that I don't care about refugees abroad, or our precipitously diminishing standing in the world - I do. But this horrific administration and its Republican congressional allies/enablers are corrupting our democracy, undermining our democratic institutions, promoting and/or supporting white nationalism (and, yes, neo-Nazis), unraveling our environmental protections, eviscerating our already frayed and fragile social and economic safety nets for our poorest and most vulnerable citizens and even the lower middle class, and weakening our heretofore first rate educational institutions and scientific research efforts that have driven our prosperity in the past. And that's the short list.
In light of all that, it's tough to worry about those outside of America.
13
Mr.Kristof, I read all your columns with the exception of any trump columns. I prefer to start my day without nausea. Anyway, I loved your gift giving piece. I have given through Heifer Organization,a marvelous group of people. I gave a lamb to my husband and a flock of geese to my ex husband. Both were deeply appreciated. No hidden agenda re: meaning of the animals chosen ! So keep writing you make me feel better. Be well.
20
If it's any consolation, Nick, our family readily embraced your gift giving column. In lieu of receiving a Chanukah gift, our sons each chose a charity. While Aaron, age 9, opted for remote medical and dental care in the U.S., Charlie, age 12, was happy to help in the effort to deworm children abroad.
Please don't stop in your efforts to shed light where darkness is greatest. Thanks and keep 'em coming....
87
I always read your columns because they have an uncanny ability to snap me out of whatever self-important perseverating mental state I find myself trapped in. It never occurs to me which pieces are more popular than others. They're simply necessary and delivered with exceptional wordcraft.
That's seldom true of opinion pieces in any publication.
And how the heck did the word, viral, become a good thing?
13
I wouldn't miss a word, NK; you always take mensomeplace that's exactly where I need to go! Thanks and Happiest!
9
Mr. Kristof, I suppose not every topic is equally attention-grabbing. But you focus your readership on a myriad of issues, big and small, domestic and global. And you shine a light not only on the venal, corrupt, and evil, but on those who make a difference and improve lives. You have steered me to support wonderful charitable causes, for which I am grateful. Please keep doing what you do!
25
Mr. Kristof
If it's any consolation, I, along with you and your mother, did enjoy the one on gift giving ideas. Better than ties, scarves, etc. I too choose to do good throughout the year, so thanks for the ideas.
11
I actually read most of your non-read columns. I particularly "like" the one on club foot. When it takes so little to give another human a chance at a happy and productive life, it is a crime not to help! As far as the great buffoon is concerned, it would not break my heart if I never see another picture of or article on him. Speaking of a crime, he is one looking for a place to happen. Alas, he seems to have found it here in the good old US of A.
11
I read all of your columns. Your reporting is not only appreciated but critical. Keep up the great work!
25
Nicholas is a great humanitarian, but his political bias keeps him from recognizing the humanitarian potential of an honest, real President who reaffirms America's place in the world beyond simply kowtowing to terrorist states and tyrants as his predecessor did.
Want to stop Aids? Elect George W. Bush to the White House. Check!
Want to see millions of poor workers live independently of government bureaucrats? Elect Donald Trump. Plus, see he entire middle class prosper financially even while the red ink is reduced. Check!
Want to see Hamas have an easier time importing drugs into the U.S.? Elect Barack Obama. Sadly, Check!
2
Want to see aid to stop AIDS be cut drastically? Elect Trump
https://www.pih.org/article/our-patients-will-die-without-foreign-aid
3
Seriously flawed facts. Good Grief .
2
You are among my favorites to read in the NYT. I look forward to reading whatever you choose to write about because it is always interesting and I always learn something. That is one of the purposes of good journalism and you are a shining example of just that.
Thank you!!!
9
We appreciate you and your columns.
10
Because you were appealing to love, not hate.
12
The New York Times has some fantastic journalists and reporters, but it's harder to imagine a finer humanitarian than Nicholas Kristof who changes the world with his reporting.
Kristof has won two Pultizer Prizes, one with his wife, for their reporting on the pro-democracy student movement and Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and one for genocide in Darfur and that gave voice to the voiceless.
Kristof has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist seven times.
Bill Clinton said this of Kristof:
"There is no one in journalism, anywhere in the United States at least, who has done anything like the work he has done to figure out how poor people are actually living around the world, and what their potential is...so every American citizen who cares about this should be profoundly grateful that someone in our press establishment cares enough about this to haul himself all around the world to figure out what's going on....I am personally in his debt, as are we all."
Joyce Barnathan, president of the International Center for Journalists, said in a 2013 statement: "Nick Kristof is the conscience of international journalism."
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says that a page one article by Kristof in January 1997 about child mortality in the developing world helped direct the couple toward global health as a focus of philanthropy. A framed copy of that article is in the gallery of the Gates Foundation.
Nicholas Kristof reeks of humanity, and we all owe him our thanks for his service.
361
Bravo!
11
Mr Kristof, you are one of the greatest and most influential humanitarians of our era. That fewer people read your brilliantly reported stories about social justice than they do your stories about the Trumpublicans does not compromise the value of your work. Future historians, political scientists and so forth etc etc will be much more focused on your penetrating reporting and comentary about social and political crises around the world than they will be on your Trump-focused stuff. There's plenty of that already. I say to MY Mom all the time, thank God for Nick... One of the jewels in the NYT 's crown and in the free press.
25
Hi, Annie of Wilmington NC. I am Anne of Wilmington NC. Hope our NYT posts don't confuse anyone.
1
Mr. Kristof, I have long described you as someone who writes about "things that aren't on the mainstream media radar, but probably should be." At least you help some things get there eventually.
13
Ironic. This column on Nicholas Kristof’s “Worst Columns of 2017” is one of his best!
It’s like a collection of B-sides that you enjoyed the first time you heard them but not as much as the A-side. Then, sometime later, you made a playlist of the collection that is now one of your favorites.
Thanks for the reminder!
24
Funny to see Kristof mugging like that.
Appreciate the humility and always the humanity.
Conscience incarnate.
7
On the contrary, I do my best to avoid Trump columns and news articles, which severely limits my reading these days. Ho hum, here we go again re this illegitimate POTUS. I wish NYT would declare a one-week moratorium on the name Trump. How about you do this?
9
We all need a week without Trump.
3
You didn't mention the columns about North Korea that I sent to my son.
2
Your worst column is about the cruel hounding of Woody Allen, based on vapid, revengeful, and unproven allegations of your friends.
I agree with Mr. Henry on this one.
1
You look so sad in your picture. Cheer up. I lOVED your column about your visit to North Korea.
2
Click bait topics such as The Republican President are entertaining, but your worst columns are truly valuable. Cheer up, and do as The Republican President does -- double down on you worst efforts in 2018.
3
As a retired Ambassador and senior State Department official, I can tell you the reason why the Trump administration and Secretary Tillerson can get away with strangling the State Department and Foreign Service through a 30% budget cut is that diplomacy has a very small constituency.
Most Americans don't think foreign affairs affects them. It does; it's what get their kids killed when we go off half-cocked to war in Vietnam or Iraq and, soon, Iran. It's often what puts food on their tables, inasmuch as many jobs rest on the warp and the woof of international trade (a separate matter from whether a particular trade agreement benefits us). When Americans go touristing it is made possible by the fact we are welcome in the countries we most visit. And our security depends, as it has since WWII on a system of alliances which protect us as well as our allies, the Banquo's ghost at the feast of words in Trump's just released National Security Strategy.
Keep at It. Even if any particular column only educates a few Americans, it's worth the effort to get them interested in the world outside. Do a book on why Americans aren't much interested in foreign affairs and why they should wake up. You could call it a Nation of Sheep, except that the title was taken a good while back by Lederer and Burdick.
55
Wade Boggs, Red Sox third baseman, hit about .330 in his career. His comment about it was priceless: "baseball is the only thing you can fail at 70% of the time and still do well." Your average is a lot better than that, so keep swinging and take pride in every at bat.
5
"we can’t bomb Ebola"
Well, true, but Trump could always order a nuclear strike and that would stand a good chance of wiping it out! Sadly, this wouldn't surprise me. Little does anymore.
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
2
Calm and peaceful 2018? You must be kidding. The country needs to wake up and create turmoil the likes of which will demolish the political party of predators and pedophiles. America has a choice - remain complacent and go down the drain, or wake up and do something constructive for our collective future.
3
I read these articles! And good on ya!
4
Thanks so much, for sharing these columns with us again.
2
I read all of your columns! I learn much about the “real world” from you. That had more relevance than 50 percent of the Trump stories. Just keep doing what you do so well and stop looking at the numbers. Your columns are wonderful! No clunkers! Keep on keepin’ On!
4
But for those of us nauseated by all things Trump, which dominate daily news, your columns are a welcome divergence and insight into the unknown or forgotten. Please don't go all in on Trump. He's already sucked up most of the oxygen.
3
Are you not worrying about job security? NYT certainly should! Can you be more effective by combining and/or applying your overseas experience to domestic hot topics? We have enough troubles at home already. I stop reading more bad news from outside. We are doomed as a species. Why bother?! Besides, I am busy and I can have so many different choices. Watching a stupid movie on Netflix sucks away two valuable hours. I feel guilty afterwards but I still do it occasionally. Can you do something like the movie Forrest Gump? I just want to read and watch news and movies in which good people always win from the beginning to the end. Why not? What more lessons can we learn from human tradegy and stupidity? Suspense is for people who have not much (intellectual) challenges in real life. Tradegy is mostly caused by humans directly or indirectly.
Your rural Oregon experience and your personal life experience are certainly valued by many of us. Just want you to know.
No, I didn't read all of these either -- but I read your work almost every day as a panacea to the horrors in DC. Even as you report on the depths of human misery and abuse, you manage to also offer news that highlight the goodness, the compassion, the generosity of the best of us. Damn the bottom line --- your work is vital and much appreciated and I thank you for it.
1
As a result of my passionate commitment to reading your columns, I convinced a group of intelligent and compassionate teens in my admittedly liberal Episcopalian church to adopt the World Bicycle Relief organization as their preferred charity. In the spring for four years, we would hold a bake sale in the church across the Sundays that covered the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day, and for four years, they raised over $1000 annually which they donated to this charity. Several of them still ask for donations for bikes in lieu of Christmas gifts, due to your influence.
While teaching college courses on persuasive writing and speaking, I required my students research a humanitarian issue of concern outside the United States. They produced work on conflict diamonds, modern day slavery, prostitution and coercion, refugee crises around the world, and the suppression of speech in Russia. They also read Half the Sky for discussion.
All this means that you ARE having an effect. I am just one person with influence on a limited group of people, but some became passionate advocates for justice and human rights. We are like a chain, each of us forging a link to others who share our zeal.
6
I read in priority your op ed about international issues so please keep writing them! Thank you for your insightful work and keep fighting for equity, social justice, antifascism and human rights.
2
Column acceptance is time sensitive. Right now we are in Trump time. That doesn't mean your columns are not interesting or bad. The recently passed "tax reform" will demand well earned attention for the next weeks. Just live with it and continue to be yourself.
1
I appreciate you drawing our attention back to these columns Nick, and thanks to you and the Times for continuing to write and publish these pieces focused on people who are suffering.
2
Please know that each year at each holiday I use your gift guides. If you ask the organizations that you highlight if they see a bump in donations after your columns, I am sure they would say yes. That is the important thing.
Heifer has long been a favorite (and how I introduced my nieces to the concept of a Christmas donation in conjunction with a stuffed animal to represent the gift to the organization). Some organizations that you have noted have become part of my monthly giving and I am going to make a donation to one of the organizations below.
Perhaps some of the most important work that you do is in your less read columns (that do not become click bait on other sites).
1
Perhaps this just shows that now is the time and all the more reason to take Howard Thurman's words to heart:
"When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The Work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers and sisters,
To make music in the heart."
1
I read all your columns and thank you for your thoughtful and compassionate insights. While I read The NYT online during the week, my one luxury and special moment is to make a latte and read the Sunday NYT in paper. Yes paper. There’s just something about opening that crisp page and savoring those well thought through commentaries that Opinion bestows on us. So add in the few left who still enjoy that quaint habit of reading your fabulous paper, on paper!
I especially appreciate the annual holiday gift-giving column. Great ideas for those who do not really need an extra tie.
I felt a sense of despair as I began to read your list. Despair that so many of show so little compassion. We are so obsessed with our headache that we can't recognize malignant growths.
I just watched "This is what a refugee looks like" and found it to be utterly heartbreaking. I'd like to say this should be mandatory viewing for anyone shouting "build the wall" but sadly doubt it would have any impact. Absolutely devastating.
1
Dear Nicholas:
please don't be sad that some of your writings don't get that many clicks. Your writings are among the most diverse I have known.
You see, in this age of Trump presidency and its accompanying threats to democracy in our country, many of us are too comcerned about those issue at the expense of other important issues like the innocence of a black man Kevin Cooler on death row, the plight of central American refugees, or giving the gift of healing clubfoot to a child.
The problem is not with your writing. It is rather with my capacity to appreciate what you are trying to tell me which is that Trump is not the only problem facing us, that there are still innocent people in jail, that there are central American refugee girls at risk, and that many sick children can be cured if only we speared a few cents.
You are one of my favorites. The worth of your writing is independent of the number of clicks it gets. please continue doing what you are already doing.
4
We know that anything about Trump sells, Nick: Trump is the only thing that saved print newspapers. The man should be feted by all of you as your economic salvation. And that fact goes a long way to explaining why the MSM despises him to such a degree: it pays.
But I read your columns, while I don't always comment in them -- I have to admit that a feeling of profound helplessness can be overwhelming when informed that half of Myanmar is sex trafficked, a quarter is regularly used as subjects for illegal medical experiments featuring quick-removal procedures of kidneys for sale in Western markets, and the last quarter sold to Lewis Black to be given out as his favorite gift.
You write regularly of such unspeakable human tragedy. It can't be surprising that on bad days ... people just don't want to peek.
2
I appreciated you holiday gift guide. I used it and a similar Vox article to research organizations discussed in these articles. I donated to two of these organizations, one that distributes malaria nets and another that makes direct cash distributions.
2
Actually, after having read most of your articles this year, I would say I fall into the less popular camp...and admired your articles focusing on humanitarian issues. The Trump pieces, while also thoughtfully composed, highlight 45's outrageousness...of which I can find myriad examples elsewhere in my daily media diet. But it is your focus on other parts of the world--on people who are different from, but very much the same as, all of us--that sets your journalism apart. Your ability to make readers empathize and appreciate the common humanity we share. That is what I look forward to reading in your columns, and what I enjoyed immensely in "Half the Sky". To wit, I shared a link to your holiday gift giving guide and suggested that my family consider "needs" versus "wants". My daughter is picking out my birthday present from kiva.org and will help address real needs...versus giving me another tchotchke to dust.
6
I loved the open letter to Lou Xiaobo. Shared it, read it again today, and will continue to read it on the anniversary of his death.
4
I guess I'm an opposite reader. I avoid columns with the name of 44.01 in them. I don't want reminders of his very existence and don't think any more can be said that hasn't been said. However, I love your informative take on what's going on overseas. Those columns are my very favorite of all columns in the NYTimes. Please keep them coming. Justice is my middle name, but I've given up political activism as I can't spend my life angry. I distracted myself by writing a novel with justice as its theme. In fact, peace, a relative of justice, was a theme of my first novel, but I digress.
I don't think you have to be as obsessive as I am to love your least read columns. Think of the rating each reader gives them.
5
I'm sorry to see you label your columns which highlight injustice ' My Worst'.
I understand that the job of a columnist may be to reach many readers but for some of us your window into the many situations of injustice and neglect are important. Although sometimes it is challenging to be alerted to so much sorrow, it is essential for all of us to maintain our awareness and humanity. I hope you know that your efforts are appreciated and I that you continue to do this important work.
Mary Bernstein
2
Dear Mr. Kristof,
Please don't sell your lesser read columns too short. I have no doubt that some number of people gave to a charity because they read your column.
I wonder if journalists fully realize what an impact their words have, and how great a responsibility they have to chose their words honestly and wisely. It isn't about how many "likes" they get; that is trivial. It is about whether reading their column has an effect on how people act in their own lives. Your lesser read column on charities likely had far more impact than many others that were "liked" far more, but where the readers just moved on.
A journalist's temptation to ego must be huge, realizing that what they say can move people to act. Their isolation must also tempt them to underestimate the impact that their words can have as well. They can't know how their columns affect people's actions unless they tell them.
But really, journalists are no different from anyone else, other than the fact that they have a bigger megaphone.
Every human alive affects the world around them with their words, if there are people around to hear them.
And that knowledge should humble us all, giving all of us, not just newspaper columnists, a heightened sense of care as to how we express ourselves on a daily basis.
4
The pursuit of ratings is for hacks pandering to the lowest common denominator. Your "worst" columns are frequently your best and most insightful, not to mention genuinely important journalism. Keep it up.
7
In fairness to your readers, Mr. Trump's undermining of American values and his objective to concentrate wealth into the hands of a few pose a more immediate threat to most people than do injustices worlds away. That's why Trump sells. It's not his stellar personality. People see him as a clear and present danger. It is important for editorialists to uncover injustice wherever on earth they find it, but when an editorialist finds it in someone's backyard, the editorialist should expect there to be more interest.
4
Dear Nick,
First, let me say thank you. I try to make a point to read your articles, but must admit that I don't read them all. However, I just read your holiday gift giving article and bookmarked if for 2018. (PS--not just for holiday giving)
You need to continue to be "the voice of one calling out in the wilderness " and I resolve in 2018 to read all of your articles -- especially the ones on social justice. It's time for all of us to be the voice of change.
4
I read all of your columns and am grateful for your insights, both national and international. Thank you.
3
Thanks for the hard work and great journalism.
3
i wsnt to tell you that I'm reading all your articles. and the one about the clubfoot was one of the best
3
I hope the soon to be Publisher and the Editor see this:
I subscribe to the New York Times for the depth and breadth that it offers compared to most other American media. I want to know what may upset me, make me mad, disturb my sleep or challenge preconceived notions of an issue. I want to know what is happening beyond the borders of this country and how we are seen by our fellow citizens of this increasingly small planet.
Your work here is important and there needs to be more like it. America suffers badly from very parochial news coverage, especially in our national media. I truly think some of what brought us Trump is the abject ignorance made possible by commercial media more interested in celebrity gossip, sports gossip and political gossip than in straight facts presented without fear or favor.
I do not always agree with the editorial voice of this paper- I find it way too Neo-Liberal in it's economics, far too servile to the actions of our government, far too east coast biased in coverage assignments and far too wedded to establishment voices in political matters. That said, it does get some things right and is one of the few places left that is not copy and paste AP with a few syndicated columns thrown in. I will pay more for better coverage.
Finally, if a profile of a refugee like the young girl in your story were shown nightly on the networks for a month, things in this country would change. It is easy to discriminate against what you do not know.
Keep it up.
14
If it can make you feel better, I got the following story for you. Many years ago I pointed out to an editorialist of my local newspaper Le Droit, a mistake in his last editorial. He answered to me that almost nobody will notice the mistake, because the least read part of a newspaper is the editorial. And he had the numbers to prove it. A poll on readership of newspaper showed that the most read part of the newspaper were the news, then the columns, and last, the editorials.
1
January 22, 2017, the NYT published your column, “Why 2017 May Be the Best Year Ever.” It is still on my refrigerator/billboard for daily reading and refocusing my energies in hopeful ways. Thank you for writing.
1
I always look for your columns and I appreciate your bringing us news of things that we wouldn't otherwise get. My other favorite "foreign correspondent" is Richard Engel of NBC News. He went to the Middle East and learned Arabic by living there and talking to people, and now is a wonder of courage in reporting on the Arab "street" and politicians. I worry about him a lot as he is constantly running toward the sound of gunfire, but am thankful that you do not put yourself in harm's way so often. We need both of your voices! America would be better if the slugs in the White House had the insight and courage that you and Mr. Engel show.
4
People get a lovely dopamine shot from getting outraged. it was that way, reading about Trump, for most New Yorkers, is the equivalent of a legal drug.
If Hillary Clinton had ended her first year with 4% unemployment, 3% growth, ISIS essentially crushed, illegal immigration down by 50%, and huge companies announcing bonuses and pay raises for their employees, she would be nominated for sainthood.
2
With thanks and all credit to Mr. Obama.
3
Mr. Kristof,
I know that you ascribe the term "worst" to your least-read columns, and perhaps therein lies the problem.
Every column you noted is first-rate, by any measure. But if there is a worst, it would no doubt be this: "Trump Voters Are Not the Enemy" (2/25/2017). The passage of time has shown that, in fact, they are the enemy -- the enemy of all decent Americans. Many of us who voted for Hillary Clinton saw Trump supporters much more clearly than you did. We knew that his supporters gladly clung to every vicious slur, every vicious lie he spouted, as long as he gave them license to hate ethnic and religious minorities, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and any other Americans they deemed less "worthy" than themselves. We saw this at their rallies, we heard this with their crazed screams, "Lock Her Up". We saw them for what they were -- and continue to be.
A year on, Trump still retains nearly unanimous support of his base. We've heard him say that neo-Nazis and the KKK were "some very fine people" with no outcry from his supporters. They're not embarrassed by him -- they love every disgusting word that comes from his mouth, and they love every action he and this Republican Congress take to harm their fellow Americans who don't happen to be white, who don't happen to be Christian, who don't happen to be straight. And they'll all vote for Trump again in a heartbeat.
So, Mr. Kristof, this was your worst column, simply because it was so catastrophically wrong.
9
Mr. Kristof, your worst columns are far better than the president’s best days. You contribute greatly to the national discourse, something that can't be said for the White House press secretary. We enjoy reading your columns. Please keep up the good work.
2
Never apologize for demonstrating compassion. It's one of your very best qualities, Nick.
4
If your mother says she reads your columns, check it out.
1
The problem, at least in my case, is that your columns are just too eloquent. They speak of needless suffering going on throughout the world. But having had a heartless buffoon of a President cast upon me, they just fill me with impotent rage and frustration. With a non-caring government, what can I do about the suffering that you highlight.
1
I think your columns are amazing you open my eyes to a lot of things which people in this country do not understand and get news from the TVs whatever they don't realize how children exploited around the world including our own country and thank you for waking me up to that
2
Much is the fault of the digital media. I read much more of a hard copy newspaper and I go over each page in each section (sports gets tossed but in the NYT I would even skim that for the occasional article that was actually of interest). In a digital format I often don’t get off the first screen. I’m working on that as I need to get out of my POTUS funk. Can’t get daily delivery where I live except for Sunday which has become too New York focused and leaves not realing most of it.
Try "Times Wire" where NYT articles are in chronological order rather than by section.
Mr. Kristof,
I read all your columns and appreciate the ones about difficult issues that are not click bait. Please keep doing them.
Thanks,
MR
3
It was interesting to read your take on your worst columns but these were some of the most important to me as they are about stories that get no traction without reporters like you and I vote to do more and more columns that may not get great readership but expose things that need to be changed or fixed so a big hooray to you and your work.
3
I agree, Paula, I loved those columns. Thank you, Mr. Kristoff, for shining the light on social injustice everywhere.
My children taught me to always turn to BBC for the real news. They not only do not believe mainstream media, but also dismiss the right wing drivel of Fox and Breitbart. BBC, they point out, not only covers American news with no ax to grind but actually reports on other countries in the world as if they were people too (gasp.)
1
Ha, ha. Funny pic, and even funnier introduction. Thank you for your hard work to keep our attention on humanitarian issues home and abroad.
2
I think your original take is more correct - "Trump sells, and overseas news doesn’t."
It is not even so much that Trump sells, but that people are more interested ans concerned about issues that confront them directly. Child marriage in America is ot more immediate concern to Americans, who do make up the majority of Times readers, than child surgery in Liberia.
This is no to say that you should stop writing the less read columns, things need to be said and as long as someone other than you and your mother are reading them, some good might come from your work. I would not be surprised, however, if US focused columns continue to be better read.
So, I have something in common with your mother. We are, however, drawn to that which terrorize us and today that would be the autocrat in the White House, the blind capitalism run amok that he fosters, his celebration of the robber barons' victory with the tax bill, his... I better stop before I totally terrorize myself. Thank you for the work that you do.
2
I must admit I knew nothing of Liu Xiaobo until I ready your "open letter" column. That sent me to read about him in The Economist, and to buy his book. It also cause me to go buy your book on China. Thanks for that!
1
Mr. Kristof: I for one read your column on the children with Club feet and just donated to Miracle Feet as a result of your column. I also shared that information with family and friends. Thank you for your concern and work in helping others.
4
I read your columns faithfully and I want to say that I actually prefer your writings on humanitarian and social justice issues more than on our presidential crisis. You highlight for us the plight and injustice suffered by others, especially children, across the globe as well as here at home. You inform us and awaken our compassion. And you give hope through suggestions for actions we can take. I am a grateful reader!
10
Good morning and thank you for highlighting your columns that I might have missed.
I downloaded the links for those groups needing health help. My son in law prefers donations in his name as a gift. So will do that this year.
Big smile of appreciation to you and thanks again.
8
The facial expression in the photograph rather nicely captures the angst of feeling underappreciated.
But nay, not so, Mr. Kristof.
I have read every one of your NY Times columns in 2017. In truth, I have read every single one of your columns for several years. I am sure there are numerous others who could say the same.
And, if I may humbly say so, they are much appreciated.
Please continue to write them. And I, and many others, will continue to read them.
153
I read ALL your columns, as painful as some are. We need to know what's actually happening, and what can be done. You are the best person I
( almost ) know, and I thank you for the excellent work. WE need you.
12
Just keep writing Nick. Your mother and I read all of your columns.
Thanks.
Mike Metcalf
12
Nick, you do a phenomenal job shining a light on obscure but important subjects. I especially liked the “Miracles” story, which brought me to tears. Kudos to the Times for unleashing you to do this important work, and for supporting your efforts to involve budding journalists in your reporting.
14
I read your columns online and particularly like your positive stories about international aid. I missed some of the stories you listed here but not from lack of interest. The format on my tablet brings up Top Stories first. I never thought about this but this electronic format perhaps creates a positive feedback loop. The more popular a story is the more likely I am to see it and by clicking on it I make it more popular. I am pretty sick of Trump news and exhausted from perpetual outrage, so I will have to do a better job seeking out your columns. They are a beacon of hope in dark times.
18
I agree, I feel that I am not reading as widely since I switched from physical paper to the electronic newspaper format. I really don’t know what to do about it except to Read more
Specialized publications.
1
Sue, I also use a tablet. However I wouldn’t use their APP if my life depended on it. Though it is installed, for one reason.
I read the Opinion columns first, Sometimes when I try to comment it won’t let me. So, I find that column on the app & there I am allowed to comment. Once done I go back to nytimes.com to continue reading the paper. It’s annoying, but, has turned into an easy work around. Any opinion writer who systematically does not allow comments ends up losing my interest. As they come across to me as cowards who don’t want to see anyone write anything against their beliefs. Mr Kristof isn’t a coward. Mostly I read what he writes. Some days I don’t have time to read everything I wish too, but, such is life. I no longer watch TV. Wrong, this year I watched Big Poppi be celebrated at Fenway Park, & on vacation I sometimes watch documentaries because my internet connection often isn’t the best no matter what the resort says. If, say, a headline interests me, here or on CNN & it is only on video, not written, I do not watch it. I never watch or read anything from Faux News & they are the worst liars I have ever seen. Many of them don’t believe what they say, they just want to keep their jobs, so why should I watch them? Time to move on to the next article. Keep up the good work.
I have unending admiration for your willingness and ability to wade into suffering, put some perspective on what you're seeing, and organize it into compassionate columns. How do you handle the overwhelm when surrounded by hopelessness? Unfortunately, overwhelm has paralyzed a lot of us as we see what we value being torn down and discarded in Washington. We've reached our suffering limit just by watching our own country, leaving us with little ability to focus elsewhere. So sad.
The good news is that change is inevitable. This too shall pass. Our country will regain its sense of its place in the world community freeing up its citizens' shutdown. The alternative is just too sad and potentially horrifying to contemplate.
2
I read all of your columns Mr. Kristof because you lend an enlightened, progressive voice to all topics. I am particularly grateful for your foreign columns. I first read about Valentino Achak Deng and his VAD Foundation through your column and have financially supported it since. Only when we recognize and respect the dignity of ALL persons will we be fulfilled.
5
Thank you most sincerely for continuing to care, and write, about injustice, cruelty and suffering, the wide world over. And thank you to the New York Times, for publishing you.
19
It's telling how much attention we shower on all things Trump. The media blows life into him, and those that follow the drama are flooded by the drama. Let's say it's the cost of being informed. Thanks to those who do the honest investigating and reporting. The truth is coming into focus. And thanks to reporters and thinkers like NK, who shed light on other world situations that tend to be drowned out by the Trump shower.
3
it can't be a surprise that stories in foreign lands weren't as widely read.
you've got trump who is the equivalent of a continual 24 hour car crash. you are appalled and horrified but can't tear your eyes away.
also, the united states of hysteria is not renowned for its interest or knowledge of the approximately 95% of the planet that is unfortunate enough not to be American.
after all what other country calls its national sports champions 'world champions'?
8
While I might be guilty of not reading all of these, I can tell you that i await your charity list every year. And have donated to a few over the years. Go HERO RATS! who save lives by detecting land mines and Tuberculosis
3
You and the Times have been valiant in telling the story of terribly treated people, and for that you deserve our gratitude. Few people can sustain prolonged immersion in such tales of misery, but the reporting, making information available and knowable, and people like you drawing our attention to them, is vital. Suffering is bad, but suffering in oblivion, with no information or hope to make things better, is even worse.
15
Well, I read these and missed some! Thank you for highlighting them because they are all on clearly important issues that we should all be focused on.
22
True enough: social justice doesn't attract as much viewership at first, but the arc of the moral internet is long, and it bends towards quality, sincerity, and a focus on what's really important. Looking forward to more in 2018.
46
Well, I guess I'm the anomaly. I avoid columns about the PUS and pay special attention to columns about conditions in other countries. Plenty of PUS news/analysis - more than enough, and all of it makes me sick. Whereas your columns about other countries educate me. My foreign-born husband noticed when he moved here that our U.S. media barely know that the rest of the world exists unless there is a war, terrorism, or huge famine, and he was right. I greatly appreciate your columns about life in other countries and especially your understated way of explaining and describing.
124
Nick, thanks for the efforts.
I for one am sick to tears of Trump and his antics. Let me not get into how ignorant the man is, we all know.
Maybe a bit more in the area of football and beer could boost your ratings as most subjects are as picked over as a Thanksgiving turkey.
Keep a stiff upper lip and keep plugging. A new year is just around the corner and November elections should give us all hope of things better to come.
16
I truly appreciate the thoughtful reflection and detailed examination of the subjects you cover and expect that your editors will continue supporting your travels that spotlight world events that shape our lives in ways we may not see without your connecting the dots. Your brave showcasing of the poorly read stories are a stark reminder of the impact digital media has in tallying winners and losers. I remain a loyal NYT subscriber because I appreciate there’s more to news than popularity.
How do you really know how many read you? There are people who still actually read the NYT in paper. I would if I could, but distance makes this not feasible, but I am sure that there are many who do who might read you and you have no way of knowing.
As for the digital version, you depend on comments or recommend or save to know. Not a very efficient way to know. I do not recommend or save, but I read much of what is there. I comment when I feel like it, but I would not bother commenting on this if it were not for the faulty logic.
Finally, for whom are you writing? To make your audience happy or readers happy? Or to tell the truth, your version whatever that might be. That is not always popular. My comments are certainly not always recommended, but so what.
10
Well maybe I didn't read all your columns but I do admire your work!
12
One reason we may read your Trump articles over those on other topics is that Trump is our most immediate problem. Without understanding and defending our democracy we may not be able to work on the other problems.
BTW: The click-bait title worked!
76
Agreed. So many of us desperately seek defeat of this evil, vulgar, ignorant man and his enablers yet feel powerless to effect it. We naturally focus our sharpest attention on anyone with a voice who can lend support.
Keep up the great work, Nicholas. Your insights are constantly valuable and thought provoking. If only the administration could see things this way.....
14
I read this column! (And most of the ones you mentioned)
3
You didn't mention if it did change your selection of topics for future writing, after finding the readers likes and dislikes. I value your opinions and make it point to read selectively.
2
Please keep writing your foreign-country-social-justice columns! You do such a great job at putting a face on issues that may otherwise seem distant and unrelatable.
11
Me, you and your ma. I’ll read them later.
I ALWAYS read Kristof's columns. Nicholas Kristof is the BEST!
27
Well, seems like I'm interested in your worst columns then... I read just a few of the Trump ones, but I love your global issues columns. Keep them coming!
42
You may count me as being among the 3% who read those "other" columns - - and "other" articles that do NOT mention the T-word in their headlines.
It may be that the T-word grabs readers and sells newspapers and magazines but I, for one, have gotten to the point that I just skip over any article which leads with it. There is so much of him that I am becoming numb! I weary of the effort necessary to filter out articles built on our Ego-in-Chief and I have less enthusiasm for reading any part of my beloved NYT.
Until we - as a nation - lose our fascination with this aberration and the T-Word disappears from most of the territory it now occupies, the man's ego will continue to be fed and his appetite for attention will only grow.
32
I think that should be "necessarily" in about the sixth sentence of the second paragraph. And I read several of those columns and enjoyed them!
If you wanted to simply get more clicks you could just write columns for or against cats. At a defunct newspaper where I once worked an editor would sneak in letters allegedly from a Mr. McMurders about killing cats that got into his tomato patch. Very big hits. The trumps are the new cats. Glad you don't always go that way.
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It's not your fault. We readers choose what to click on the basis of, first, the headline, and second, the little blurb underneath it. Those are concocted by editors, right?
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I agree with Skeptical --- there is the problem.
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I shamefully must admit, I too am a sucker for Trump headlines. It's like viewing the car wreck – just can't help looking. But please continue putting your energy in the more important stories even if they don't get the clicks. We need more of the hard, expensive, low readership stories for our humanity. Anyone can jump on the writing bandwagon the latest stupidity of our current POTUS. Those “stories” are always well covered.
Fewer journalists are giving us the facts we need to know about the world around us. Trump's antics will soon be gone but the stories about people surviving in North Korea, and the injustices in our penal system and elsewhere will still be important until enough people know and care about these things.
Thanks for being one of the good guys in your industry.
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Happy New Year, Mr. K! May 2018 present you many uplifting, insightful, and endearing topics upon which to opine! And may we all know personal and communal peace. Political sanity would be icing on the cake.
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You and I are on opposite sides of politics. I read your columns to know all sides. In the past, you suggested Room to Read as an excellent group to support, and I do. We can have different viewpoints, but as long as we are talking, reading and listening, it will be OK.
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Thank you Nicholas; you cover stories that perhaps no one else in big media would. We in America have become way too self-absorbed and isolated; there is so much good and bad news around the world that we need to know. It is mythical to assume that bad things only happen in the U.S., and, worse, that good ideas are generated only in America. And, by the way, I read virtually all of your columns!
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Meanwhile, I wonder if Mr Mueller understands that He could Be the
Answer to many American Prayers.
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Most read/Least read, but hopefully all well enough read and certainly all well written.
Thank you, sir, and thank the NYT for supporting you.
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Thanks for this write-up. I read some of the links to your articles and found it engaging. Sorry, only recently I signed up for nytimes online from a different country. Still exploring. Please continue writing. You are giving different perspective to the issues.
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You can count us in on those who read your international and humanitarian columns THE MOST. We rely on your voice to keep these issues front and center. We share them a lot and read them aloud to each other. We also keep a file of those columns and revisit them. So - keep it up for us and for your Mom!
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I am the third person who read, and benefitted from your column suggesting charitable giving at Christmas. Fifteen "flocks of ducks" will enrich the lives of Bangladeshi (?) children through the efforts of "Heifer International" , and the generosity of the children on our Christmas list. That column, with its emphasis on need VS "wants" had a strong impact on my thinking.....Thank You !
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We have an education system that limits people, focuses on chunks of content forced by extrinsically reinforced means. In addition, learners don't receive a comprehensive array of learning experiences, nor do they receive support for developing a complete package of skills to integrate relevant experiences with any degree of disparity. You simply demand too many learning skills for much of your material, your neglected articles would fair better with a more adequate educational system.
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Can't say I read every one of them, but I read many. Which I can say about the contributions of every other opinion writer at the Times. Happy Holidays, Mr. Kristof. Note: not a war on Christmas, just an acknowledgement that I do not know your faith (nor do I need to in order to wish you and yours all the best!).
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Without international and human perspective, Mr. Kristof, we would inexorably pull backwards first from the world and then from our communities and neighbors until we sit boarded up in our home, armed to the teeth and glued to a television spewing irrationality and fear throughout the land.
It is just an accident of history I was born in New Jersey and not New Guinea or an even more hardscrabble place. There but for the grace of God go I.
I will join your mother in reading all your columns.
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I read them all, Nick. Thank you. You are a beacon for social justice in a darkening world.
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Nicholas Donald Trump owns the news. Many in the public sphere owe their livelihoods to his election. He gives them a focus for their vitriol and in turn they give him power over them.
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Thank you for writing. I admire your commitment to justice. You might just be the social conscience of the NYT Opinion page. For what it's worth, along with your mother, I'm reading
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Nicholas...Thanks for your Candor. I identify so well....I live a quiet world, helping in the care of our 50 year old Daughter, who wAs diagnosed with
Alzheimer's. We moved from our home of 43 years, to be within 3 miles of her and her husband. We are where we Have to be, but are away, now from any former Friends. Meanwhile, we exist is a world dominated mated you the ubiquitous Presence of the chronic Words of "President" Donald Trump!
At 80, a retired Lutheran pastor and Family Therapist, I know that Trump is a diagnosable Sociopathic Personality Disorder. This explains the chronic symptom, one symptom of a number of symptoms.chronic Lying. Fortunately, my Wife agrees with me, but today a Trump "believer" sent
Me Trump's Christmas greeting with adoring words. Sometimes the sanest
reaction to an insane situation...is Insanity.
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Sadly, I agree with LF. But I will remain a faithful reader of ALL the columns. Keep up the good --no, excellent -- work, Nick. Thank you, NYT, for supporting his courageous, always well-written reporting. The problems he brings to our attention will still be pleading for solutions long after Trump and his minions have been sent back to their ever more lavishly feathered nests.
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Mr. Kristof,
I sent a copy of your annual gift giving guide to several friends and we agreed to make contributions to several of the organizations you listed rather than give each other one more shirt or tie we didn't need. And any number of times over the past few years I have been inspired by your columns and made donations to needy organizations that you wrote about. You make a great difference in the world, Mr. Kristof. Thank you!
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I suspect one reason columns on Trump attract so much attention stems from the way they make readers feel. Reading about this incompetent, vicious man probably makes most people think better of themselves.. Whatever our shortcomings, we know that his behavior diminishes the importance of our failures.
Mr. Kristof's columns on social injustice, by contrast, may make readers feel complicit in the evils he describes. We cannot attribute to Trump exclusive responsibility for the mistreatment of refugees or for the serious flaws in the criminal justice system. These systemic problems long predated his arrival in the White House, which suggests that much of American society shares responsibility for them.
Trump richly deserves the criticism showered on him in the pages of this paper, but Krisfof reminds us that the people of a free society cannot escape liability for the injustices they tolerate.
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I, too, find Trump headlines magnet-like. But instead of making me feel better about myself, they just add to the blanket of despair I am under. On the other hand, reading other news about other places, even when it implies that I must act, me aware of the broader world I can learn from and CAN act in. Trump is like an ever-inflating balloon in the news. He is made of tough stuff, but even if pin pricks don't make him pop, they do let air out bit by bit.
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Not so ! I loved your giving column and saved it To help guide my year end giving. Thank you for pointing out these pockets of need and ways to contribute.
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FWIW, the most-read and most-unread aren't independent phenomenon. (Using probability lingo, meaning that this effect of foreign issues being almost ignored is in fact influenced by the Trump problem, and would be less so otherwise.)
Trump is both a cause and effect of SO MUCH to despair over that many people have no energy left for worrying about non-domestic issues.
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This column itself is fabulous. Be aware that many of us are affected by your headline and lede without diving in for details, and share your gratitude to NYT for presenting it.
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