Public Ed. on 'NYT' Syria Coverage

Margaret Sullivan again proves her worth, raising questions (her own and from readers) about NYT's coverage of the run-up to the coming attack on Syria.  I've done this for awhile (months) on blogs and Twitter and as recently as today, noting Michael Gordon's return to the top of the home page--remember, he was Judy Miller's co-author on some of her worst Iraq pieces.  Anyway, Sullivan suggests that the paper's editorial page has been pretty cautious but its news pages too often seem to be seeing things through the eyes of the insiders and the administration. "While The Times has offered deep and rich coverage from both Washington and the Syrian region, the tone cannot be described as consistently skeptical."  (Note: My book on how the Times and others failed on Iraq, So Wrong for So Long.  My other WMD-related book: Atomic Cover-up.)

Quote of the day from the Times' number two editor, Dean Baquet, on the paper blowing Iraq WMD coverage and helping to get us into ten-year war:  "It was a long, long, time ago." Well, his family, I can report, does serve great food at JazzFest in NOLA, from their eatery.  Trout Baquet is great.