WASHINGTON, NOV 6: One of America's most respected columnists and a peerless Indophile has been fired by the New York Times after 56 years with the paper.A M Rosenthal, a former New Delhi correspondent of the paper in the 1950s and later the executive editor of the paper was send packing on Thursday in a surprise development, several media monitors said. The 77-year old Rosenthal apparently did not see it coming and was said to be unhappy.``Sweetheart, you can use any word you want,'' Rosenthal told Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz about his firing. He said Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr had told him ``it was time. What that means, I don't know.I didn't expect it at all.''Rosenthal served in New Delhi (1954-1958) soon after India's independence and wrote feelingly and passionately about the infant democracy and its struggles. As he rose in the New York Times hierarchy, he also engendered the superior coverage the paper had of the region. He continued to write a columncalled On My Mind after he retired at age 65. More than any other columnist, he wrote often on India, praising its strengths, criticising its weaknesses, and generally help correct the vastly uninformed and biased coverage of the region in the US media.In a quirky farewell column, Rosenthal acknowledged that his stint in the subcontinent was one of the best journalistic engagements in his life. ``The four years in India excited me then and forever. Rosenthal, King of the Khyber Pass!'' he wrote.Rosenthal's son Andrew Rosenthal is currently the Foreign Editor of the New York Times, a post the senior Rosenthal himself hoped to get in the sixties. But he became a city editor and then went on to become the managing editor and executive editor. Media experts say Rosenthal helped save the New York Times in the 1970s. It was under him that the paper added soft sections like Home, Weekend, and Living. He also created the Science Times, a much acclaimed section now, against the advise ofadvertising executives who wanted an ad-drawing fashion section.As editor, Rosenthal was said to be imperious and uncompromising and made many enemies. As a columnist, he was disliked by many who thought he was too soft on Israel and India. Rosenthal was also big on the Tibetan cause. In his last column on the sub-continent last month, Rosenthal criticised the latest US policy in the region calling it a Himalayan Error.``But living for about four years as a New York Times correspondent based in India and traveling often in Pakistan, I knew that the American error was widening and catastrophic. Although there were important mavericks, American officialdom clearly tilted toward Pakistan, knighted it a military ally and looked with contempt or condescension on India. Pakistan a country whose leadership provided a virtually unbroken record of economic, social and military failure and increasing influence of Islamicists. Many US officials preferred to deal with the Pakistanis over the Indians notdespite Pakistan's tendency to militarism but because of it. Man, the military fellows can get things done for you,'' he wrote.According to some media experts, Rosenthal's exit was on the cards after publisher Sulzberger cut his On My Mind column from twice a week to once a week last year. Rosenthal also underwent a heart surgery last year. Sulzberger is said to want a younger lot of columnists on the NYT edit pages to add to current starts like Maureen Down and Frank Rich. But the acclaimed columnist said he would not be quitting journalism. He is bracing for a new start.``Starting fresh - the idea frightened me. Then I realised I was not going alone. I would take my brain and decades of newspapering with me,'' he wrote in his farewell column.
