Okay, one last bit from ex-Timesman Howell Raines writing in the May Atlantic, and then it's back to celebrity trash, I swear. But Raines doesn't get to the point til the very end of his 20,000 word extravaganza — and do you know how long ago I last actually read 20,000 words? I'm missing so much TV right now.

Anyhoo: Raines essentially makes the claim, finally, that the investigators of The Jayson Blair Incident are using that crisis to turn back the forces of progress at the Times, that the culture war inside the Times is in full swing, and, it can be interpreted, that any efforts to make the Times less white, boring, and dated will meet staunch opposition:

The Siegal Committee, whose members were selected by its chairman, released its report on July 30, 2003. The report shows an institution in denial. The committee had broadened its inquiry beyond Jayson Blair to include questions of newsroom management and communication, but its conclusions were a hymn to the old status quo, drafted by the very people who most strongly resisted the idea of a more vigorous and inclusive way of producing the paper.