Slate's Mickey Kaus identifies the four primary genres of criticism regarding [our good friend] Bernie Weinraub's piece in last weekend's Times:

1) Weinraub's pathetic insecure money envy
2) His snobby caste expectations
3) Now he tells us—sort of
4) What it means for journalism!

Then Kaus suggests another possibility: "it's a little fake for me—or Weinraub's other critics—to pretend that his coverage was so weak because of his conflict of interest or because his pitiful status anxiety caused him to pull punches. His coverage was weak...But maybe it would have been weak without the conflict and the insecurity. Maybe he's just, you know, not very good!"

Thousands of miles away, in the New York Times building:
Keller: Hmmm..."not...very...good". This Kaus person may be on to us! He seems to have discovered our secret strategy to improve circulation with systematic mediocrity! (A strategy, we might add, which has worked for us for years. Years! MUAhahahaha! MUAHAHAHAhaha! MUAHAH-*cough, cough* *Cough* Excuse me. Ahem.) We must watch him very carefully. How much does he know?...

Everybody Loves Bernie! [Kausfiles]