A KIND WORD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, more than a few, actually. I’m working on a law review article about the regulation of nanotechnology, and I’ve been going through the mainstream media coverage of the subject. The Times is way ahead of anyone else — and I mean way ahead. Not only is the quality of its coverage excellent, but the sheer quantity outstrips everyone else by a mile.

This is the sort of thing that makes the Times great. And I suspect that I speak for a lot of people in saying that if Howell Raines, et al., had focused on this kind of work, excellent reporting on a wide array of topics, taking advantage of the Times’ superior size and scope, things would be a lot better. I hope that the new editors will keep that in mind. People don’t criticize the Times because it isn’t a national treasure. They — or at least I — criticize it because it is one, and recent zone-flooding on Augusta National, etc., has squandered that status.