Re: The New York Times

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

It should hardly be necessary, but I cheerfully second James Bratek's moderate
defense of The Times. The "Automobiles" page in the same issue which contained
the recent Alfa ignorance (in the mainly fashions-and-weddings "Styles"
section) consisted of two article by their regular contributor Keith Martin
comparing and contrasting the BMW Z8 and the Mercedes SL500; Martin, whose
"Sports Car Market Letter" had started decades ago as the "Alfa Romeo Market
Letter" (and who also appears regularly in Autoweek, and whose Alfa collection
includes a "Matta", the 1900-based military utility) writes intelligently and
knowledgably about cars even if his focus is more on perceived value than on
intrinsic merit. Another "Automobiles" page regular is Dan Neil, a comparably
knowledgeable but more irreverent writer who was fired years ago by my local
paper (the Raleigh, N.C. News & Observer) for being too clinical in a article
about shacking-up in an SUV which he had been asked to test for the usual sort
of advertiser-support blurb.

The amusing (but ultimately harmless) Spider article was written by someone
whose expertise unquestionably lies more in haute couture and interior
decorating trends. I can find little fault with the reporting of most of the
paper's by-liners who usually have some depth of knowledge about the more
substantive issues they report upon.

As always, YMMV. Enjoy the news-and-criticism source of your choice-

John H.
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