I actually found the article quite humorous. LOL! (This comes from someone married to a journalist and who went to journalism school herself) : )
However, when Joel sarcastically writes "First of all, I did a tiny bit of research for my column, so I'm already familiar with your brilliant argument", the time comes to mind when I busted a famous writer for an incorrect factoid (directly related to his specialty, and the subject of the column) in his nationally released article.
He emailed me back with the news that the editor of the Times who he was working with basically stuck the incorrect line in his opinion piece (for effect, I guess).
Maybe Joel has total editorial control - or maybe he's in single-A ball, journalistically speaking. ;-)