Mystery Blogger for the Atlantic Attacks 'Excellent' New York Times Reporter

I'm sure Megan McArdle will have something to say about this, but since I think she's on vacation (could be wrong about that) I thought I'd note that New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt has weighed in on the Edmund Andrews flap, which spun out of Megan's post on his wife's bankruptcies. And since Hoyt spends all of one paragraph on the subject, I can just reproduce that here:

On Thursday, [Andrews] came under attack from a blogger for The Atlantic for not mentioning in his book that his wife had twice filed for bankruptcy -- the second time while they were married, though Andrews said it involved an old loan from a family member. He said he had wanted to spare his wife any more embarrassment. The blogger said the omission undercut Andrews's story, but I think it was clear that he and his wife could not manage their finances, bankruptcies or no. Still, he should have revealed the second one, if only to head off the criticism.

Not exactly comprehensive, is it?



I'm going to outsource the heavy lifting to Brad DeLong and Felix Salmon, both of whom have done excellent posts on this subject that provide the details Hoyt manages to avoid. But I would like to mention how weird I find Hoyt's phrasing here. I wouldn't characterize Megan's original post as an attack, and Megan is never mentioned by name -- she's just an unnamed blogger for the Atlantic. (Incidentally, she is also the business and economics editor of the magazine.) What's the deal with that? Is this, as Felix says, a little blogophobia from the Times?

Interblag comment from classic xkcd comic