From Andrew Sullivan this morning:


ANOTHER FREUDIAN SLIP: One of the emails Mnookin unearths is particularly interesting. It shows that one reason many NYT scribes are mad at Raines and Bragg is that this scandal has severely dented the Times' ability to spin the news in a left-liberal direction while hiding behind the veil of the "paper of record." Once that reputation has been trashed, how can they keep that game up? They'll be seen as just another biased news outlet, if much bigger and better than many others. Here's the money quote from Tim Egan - yes the Tim Egan who lied on the front page about rising temperatures in Alaska:

What will come of this infighting, cannibalism, and soul-searching? Hopefully, we'll go back to valuing what we have: people who care about the drift of this country, and are given the time and respect to tell it right.

Hmmm. What does he mean, "the drift of this country"? I think we know - it's headed rightward. And the job of the Times is not to give us all the news that's fit to print, but to haul it to the left. On the one hand, Bragg and Blair. On the other, Egan and Hedges. The choice at the Times is between frauds and ideologues. (Of course, there's also Paul Krugman, who manages to conflate the two.)