Gifted

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jun 02, 2003

Shrewd, independent, humble, plucky Anna Quindlen puts us all right on l'Affair Jayson Blair:

Times reporters and editors are as gifted a bunch as ever tried to make sense of the world every 24 hours. (I was once lucky enough to be one of them.) While all this is swirling around them, like one of those trash storms on a windy day in Times Square, they are still managing to turn out as good a paper as the country has ever had. The New York Times is better now than at any time in its history. If you don't believe me, go to the microfilm at the library. Stolid prose. Narrow focus. Undue deference to government. Intentional blindness toward the disenfranchised and the different. That was once the stock in trade of much of American journalism.

In your case, Anna, I'd be inclined to discount luck. The gentlemen of Times Square clearly got what they were paying for.