public editor
As media distrust grows, another outlet drops its liaison between the public and the newsroom.
Elizabeth Spayd will be the final journalist to hold the accountability position created in the wake of a 2003 plagiarism scandal.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING
So what gives? Why has one of the most revered news operations -- a program that has won more Emmy Awards than any other TV news organization -- turned its back on the kind of shoe-leather investigative reporting that has earned it a record-setting audience?
I confess. I am a man of words and thus, increasingly, a dinosaur. The New York Times' public editor, conduit to America's most influential news organization, should be more.
Today the New York Times asked for input on "whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge 'facts' that are asserted by newsmakers they write about." The response among my peers has been fairly unanimous: Are you f-ing kidding me?