The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
The Banana Lady in a photo provided by the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
Make That a-Peels Court
“Banana Lady’s Lawsuit Slips Up in Appeals Court”–headline, Chicago Tribune, April 15
Question and Answer–I
- “If a Nuclear Bomb Exploded in Downtown Washington, What Should You Do?”–headline,TheWeek.com, April 14, 2014
- “Growing Western Support for Panic”–headline, Straits Times (Singapore), Sept. 27, 1992
Bottom Story of the Day
” Chelsea Clinton Goes From ‘No Way’ to ‘Maybe’ on Political Bid”–headline, USA Today website, April 14
It’s Later Than We Think
Remember Jayson Blair? We do, if only dimly. He was the New York Times reporter who was discovered to have fabricated and plagiarized a series of stories. The ensuing scandal led to a revolt in the Times newsroom, the sacking of two top editors, and the establishment of the “public editor” (ombudsman) position at the newspaper.
Andrew O’Hehir reviews a new documentary about Blair for Salon.com, and we got a kick out of the opening:
No one could make much sense of the Jayson Blair scandal when it unfolded in 2003, and while it may look somewhat different from a decade’s distance, it hasn’t become a whole lot more edifying. One of my main reactions to Samantha Grant’s documentary “A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power and Jayson Blair at the New York Times” was to say to myself: Thank Christ that didn’t happen in the age of Twitter. Can you imagine how much uglier the whole twisted business could have been, had we been barraged with every idiot’s half-baked thoughts about it for weeks on end?
Yes, we’re now nostalgic for the simpler days of 2003, when there was no way for an idiot to express half-baked thoughts other than writing a letter to the editor or starting a blog. Time flies, doesn’t it? Why, we’re old enough to remember when people were nostalgic for men on the moon.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
