Shorter, But Not Much Better…

Deval Patrick’s second Times appearance in a month is shorter than his first (an A1 job in which the nation’s paper of record wondered how the F things on Beacon Hill could’ve gone so bad so quickly, and in which the governor allowed himself to be quoted as labeling Sal DiMasi as “part of what we ran against” on the morning of this hug-tastic press conference), but it’s got to be no easier to swallow.

The paper notes, quickly and glibly enough, that the state’s universal health care law is rapidly flying off the budgetary rails. The Times rode shotgun during the state’s first car wreck, and from the looks of things, it appears to be preparing for the eventuality of an encore.

The Times: Worse Than Bush

Here are some staggeringly frightening numbers about you, America, via Portfolio.com’s Jeff Bercovici: The nation’s preeminent newspaper, the New York Times, has a lower approval rating than the president. Even with the awful war, stagflation, spying and the rest of it.

Just 24% of respondents to a recent Rasmussen study expressed a favorable opinion of the paper, compared with 44% unfavorable, and 31% “not sure.”

Not sure? Why not? That’s logical. The paper might be a collective of people with notebooks chasing down quotes and calling sources and writing down what they hear. Or Bill Keller might run around his office all day in Muslim garb. Not sure.

And you know, Vladimir Putin doesn’t look like such a horrible tyrant. If it’s Putin’s word against the Times’s, how can we ever know for sure???

Two Things

Two observations: One day later, the Times’s John McCain maybe straight-talked his way into my pants story is the most blogged item on the paper’s website.

And for all the endless kvetching about the whole thing, this is the paper’s most emailed story right now. Sexy Johnny hasn’t even cracked the top ten.