The front page of the Sunday May 24 edition of the New York Times is as shown below. No pictures, no stories, no editorials or opinions pieces — just a solemn list of one thousand of the close-to one hundred thousand lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic and a one sentence description of the richness of the lives lived. It is also a grim reminder that these lives would not have been lost if the trump administration or the GOP had an iota of competency or decency.
There is a graphical display of the names and the unnamed lives lost at www.nytimes.com/…
Some background on the design and concept of the front page -
I wanted something that people would look back on in 100 years to understand the toll of what we’re living through,” Marc Lacey, National editor, said.
Simone Landon, assistant editor of the Graphics desk, wanted to represent the number in a way that conveyed both the vastness and the variety of lives lost.
Alain Delaquérière, a researcher, combed through various sources online for obituaries and death notices with Covid-19 written as the cause of death. He compiled a list of nearly a thousand names from hundreds of newspapers. A team of editors from across the newsroom, in addition to three graduate student journalists, read them and gleaned phrases that depicted the uniqueness of each life lost:
“Alan Lund, 81, Washington, conductor with ‘the most amazing ear’ … ”
“Theresa Elloie, 63, New Orleans, renowned for her business making detailed pins and corsages … ”
“Florencio Almazo Morán, 65, New York City, one-man army … ”
“Coby Adolph, 44, Chicago, entrepreneur and adventurer … ”
“Hailey Herrara, 25, NYC budding therapist with a gift for empathy.”
Some more names and the lives they lived —
Some reactions ...
The NYT front page will be featured on Morning Joe on Sunday morning -
As many have said, many more lives will be lost since the republican party has no heart and no soul. Yes, they will fudge the numbers and let loose their army of bots to confuse and divide the nation; that’s what they do. These merchants of death care only for power and wealth, not for the lives they are sworn to protect.
Let’s strengthen our resolve to do everything we can to save lives, to educate the electorate about the truth and to send these cretins packing home (or to jail) this November.
What do you say?