Concerns

Bill Keller's appearance on the Charlie Rose Show several days ago was troubling, but in that subtle way few would notice.

When asked what other media sources he read regularly, and in which languages, he first responded that his Russian was getting a bit rusty, even though he served there between the years 1986 and 1991, first as reporter to the New York Times then as bureau chief. So reading Pravda is out. What about their online English version? As the new Executive Editor of his paper, with so much journalistic experience in the former Soviet Union, wouldn't you want to be reading your opposite number with some regularity? Apparently not.

And other European newspapers, he says, follow in the long European tradition of being aligned politically, so they're out, too. Not that his paper has ever been accused of being politically aligned, charges he scoffs at by saying if we only could speak with his journalists and see just how dedicated they are, just how intensely and with what professionalism they pursue their stories, we'd see it's not about partisanship.

(A visit to their editorial board page would answer the question far more directly, but onward . .)

So what if they are partisan, the European media that is, shouldn't you be reading them? At least scanning them for story ideas? You do run America's finest newspaper, after all. Want to keep it that way?

Just some of the English papers make the cut, the Financial Times being mentioned as one of the world's best. Are the English just a tad bit close to us culturally and politically to serve as a distinctly separate view on the world, or even on us?

Then he recounts his early hours, as if perhaps to show how in touch he really is with media other than his own. His mornings begin with a work-out at home while he listens to National Public Radio (NPR) news. American. And some might argue not the most un-aligned news program in history, drawing as they do from public coffers. Some might argue they've proven themselves to be downright leftists with a capital "L" over the years, even as their funding branches out more to the corporate sources nowadays.

Then he admits the real joy he gets out of reading other news outlets is seeing how the journalistic efforts at the New York Times affect them, how his stories drive their stories. Narcissism.

So there's the head of our finest journalistic enterprise. Not necessarily partisan, but certainly not worldly curious, aware, or wise.