The Gray Lady, the Feckless Heir, and the Harvard Harpy

Jed Babbin retails gossip about the reasons for the death rattle at the New York Times. It seems that the politically deranged Pinch Sulzberger, not trusting the ideological bona fides of Bill Keller, has given a big share of power to one Jill Abramson, a Harvard harpy and buddy of the horrid MoDo:

Backed by Sulzberger, Abramson doesn't just come close. She and Dowd combined are a controlling force. Reporters from Baghdad to Washington are having their stories rewritten at the desk. The source close to the Times inner workings said, "The real story is what's going on inside the Times. If some responsible group set up a whistleblowers' hotline for Times reporters, they'd get some startling stories about what happens in the Times's newsroom."Sometimes what an editor keeps out of a newspaper is more important than what he puts in. But Keller can't control the Sulzberger-Abramson-Dowd troika. They control the paper, leaving him to explain why, in Michael Barone's words, the New York Times is at war with America.

Meanwhile circulation stagnates and the share price plummets.

And Babbin offers his parting shot: "The NYT shouldn't be tried for treason. Incest, maybe, but not treason."