Yeesh

If you were the New York Times and you felt a pressing need to improve your readers’ confidence in your reporting, would you:

A. Demand more rigorous fact-checking?
B. Do a thorough investigation into whether your paper was unquestioningly and uncritically reporting administration claims, often without context or dissenting rebuttal?
C. Increase coverage of middle America and religion?

I don’t suppose I really need to tell you which one the Times actually chose, but let’s all have a look just for shits and giggles, shall we?
An internal committee at The New York Times has recommended several steps to help increase readers' confidence in the newspaper, including making reporters and editors more accessible through e-mail, reducing errors, and increasing coverage of middle America and religion.

[…]

[Executive editor Bill Keller] endorsed the recommendations in Monday's editions, calling the report "a sound blueprint for the next stage of our campaign to secure our accuracy, fairness and accountability."
Wow. Way to go, Times. The race for the bottom continues.

(As a side note, who in the hell is getting paid to make a formal report including such a brave and thought-provoking recommendation as reduce errors? I want that job. Pfft.)

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