More on the NYT

Executive Editor Bill Keller apparently wrote a letter to the staff of the NYT.

firedoglake : Throw Judy From the Train. The text of the letter is at Crooks and Liars.

Bill Keller writes:

There is another important issue surfaced by this case: how we deal with the inherent conflict of writing about ourselves. This paper (and, indeed, this business) has had way too much experience of that over the past few years.

In my area of work (telecomm), we kid each other about not wanting to appear in the New York Times. If a story runs on us, it usually means our telecomm network has had a major failure. The measure of our success is in remaining faceless, nameless people whose service you can take for granted, and whose brand you can unconditionally rely on. Similarly, anytime a news organization finds itself as a vital part of the story, it should immediately know that it is in deep trouble. A newspaper that finds itself newsworthy should immediately convene a crisis management group and work the cliched 24x7 to get out of the news.

Update: The Public Editor's Web Journal