Wednesday, June 11, 2003

From the CW's mouth to Dean Broder's ear

Broder pundates:

The Times has had its comeuppance. Its sins are symptomatic of the press's inflated self-importance. The Times can lead the way back to trust -- if its publisher will.

Sulzberger could start by setting up an ombudsman to run a Truth Commission on the Times's shameful role in Whitewater and the ginned up Clinton "scandals" generally. Right now, they're just putting a band-aid on a cancer. Then, he could stop issuing kneepads to the newsroom, and get his paper to start covering breaking news again.

Would today's Times publish the Pentagon Papers, or even recognize them as a story? Of course not. More to the point, would they publish the 9/11 report aWol keeps trying to suppress?