[mrustow]

This is the best analysis I've seen of the Blair case.

[Liz]

The Slimes must write the news
on this rather than desk chairs.

[BADROTOFINGER]

But if I had my pick of TV detectives to grill the mopes at the Times, I'd call "Det. Frank Pembleton" (Andre Braugher) of the late series Homicide: Life on the Streets, up from Baltimore. Pembleton, a master interrogator and avenging angel ("We speak for the dead"), is particularly adept at getting the truth out of psychopaths, and on West 43rd Street, the psychopaths seem to be tripping over each other.

Myself, Id pick Mackey and Shane from The Shield. Just my personal preference tho...JFK

[syriacus]

Let us recall New York Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.'s "hea culpa," in refusing to admit that his policies were at all responsible for Blair's misdeeds.

Hea culpa.

Nice motto for a coat of arms for liberals who don't believe in personal responsibility. Every misdeed is the fault of someone other than the perpetrator.

[Timesink]

Schadenfreude

This is the New York Times Schadenfreude Ping List. Freepmail me to be added or dropped.

[Timesink]

There is no tougher job to get in the world of journalism, than a writing gig at the New York Times. Tens of thousands of hot-shot reporters around the country dream of working at the Grey Lady, without ever getting so much as an interview.

He may be right about there being no tougher job to get in journalism (if you're a white male, anyway ... unless you have a connection to Uncle Howell or someone in senior management, in which case they're just as likely to create a spot for you as any other company would be), but he's dead wrong about thousands of young journalists dreaming of working for The Times ... and not just because of what Jayson Blair's unleashed in the last month. Times have simply changed (no pun intended). There are too many options out there, too many other ways to hit it big; combine that with the double whammy that a) The Times has long been known as one of the nastiest, most politicized newsrooms in the country, even before Howell took it to a whole new extreme never believed possible ... and only certain personality types look forward to a career in that sort of atmosphere; and b) The Times has been losing its reputation as The Newspaper of Record for a good three decades or more (though it's unquestionably lost more of that rep at a much faster pace since Howell took over than ever before); and that double whammy means most reporters don't have any particular desire to see their names on a Times byline any more. They may still want to work for a big-city paper or other news organization - TV, radio, web - but it sure doesn't have to be in Howie's House.

There's a similar effect happening in TV, by the way. It used to be that all network correspondents dreamed of one day being named The Anchor ... being the next Tom, Peter or Dan. Today there are very few on-air reporters at the networks that actively seek that career path. It's just not as prestigious any more. A lot of people see it as a dead end more than as a career pinnacle.