THE NEW YORK TIMES’ ADDITION OF DAVID BROOKS as a columnist suggests that I was right to hope that Howell Raines’ replacement with Bill Keller indicated a broader effort to restore the Times’ credibility and add some balance, though some people seemed skeptical at the time. As Virginia Postrel notes: “It may be noteworthy that opinion editor Gail Collins, a Raines protege, reports not to Bill Keller but to Arthur Sulzberger Jr. The new regime may extend beyond the newsroom.” That was my hope, and there’s at least some evidence that it’s happening.

The real test, though, will be whether the Times management will be stricter on misrepresentations and falsehoods by existing oped columnists like Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, and Nick Kristof. The jury’s still out on that one, but I have my hopes there, too.