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Best of the Web Today - May 15, 2003
By JAMES TARANTO

All the Moose That's Fit to Print
The New York Times' big management scandal is taking on the qualities of an absurdist comedy. Publisher Arthur "Pinch" Sulzburger Jr., executive editor Howell Raines and managing editor Gerald Boyd held "a town-hall-style meeting of newsroom staff members yesterday," the Times reports. But not everyone was invited. Shut out was Jacques Steinberg, the reporter who wrote the Times' account of the meeting. A note atop his piece explains: "The Times meeting was closed to news coverage. As a result, Mr. Steinberg, The Times's media writer, did not attend it." He did, however, obtain "a recording made by someone in the audience," presumably an employee of the Times, and the Times published his account of the meeting based on that recording.

The Daily News, however, scooped the Times on one delightful detail that presumably didn't come through on the audiotape:

In a surreal moment that reminded one staffer of Shari Lewis' old TV show, Sulzberger produced a stuffed toy moose that he sometimes trots out as a symbol of open communication.

Its use struck some in the audience as a tone-deaf and patronizing gesture.

Sulzberger handed the moose to Raines, who laid it aside.

Hey Pinchy, watch me pull some "news" out of my hat!