We've apparently reached the final stages of the Jayson Blair scandal. The Times has admitted that it Has A Problem. It has made a Searching and Fearless Moral Inventory of itself. It has admitted the Exact Nature of Its Wrongs. Okay, we're skipping a few steps, but you get the idea. So now what? According to the Observer, NYT editor Howell Raines is in the office occasionally, but only functioning as a sort of physical fixture. (Other uses for Raines: doorstop, excessively large paperweight...) No one seems to know how the paper gets published on a daily basis. The Observer makes some reference to a "b-team" that is, I suppose, the media equivalent of a "shadow government," but it's not quite so interesting as to provoke any creative conspiracy theories. Since we traffic in conspiracy theories, this is a bit disappointing. (But as usual, we have a solution. Submit conspiracy theories to tips@gawker.com.)
Baby, will Raines fall? [Observer]