I’ve read the New York Times since I got a great deal as a freshman at the University of Michigan for daily delivery to my dorm room. It’s a great newspaper in my view, with some really solid reporting both in the US and internationally.
But today I read an article that made me think the Times (aka Grey Lady) had gone absolutely cuckoo.
Read this passage from Neil A. Lewis in an article regarding former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens:
For example, a witness for both the government and defense, Rocky Williams, was sent home to Alaska by prosecutors who did not tell defense lawyers, an act that angered Judge Sullivan. Ms. Morris said the decision was made because Mr. Williams was gravely ill, not because prosecutors, after interviewing him, had decided he might help the defense case.
But Mr. Joy said a prosecutor, Nicholas Marsh, concocted the scheme to send Mr. Williams away after prosecutors held a mock cross-examination in which he did not perform well.
Still, there is considerable evidence that Mr. Williams was truly sick, including the fact that he has since died.
I hope for his sake that these paragraphs were written either a) up against a big deadline or b) because he really needed to up his word count. Even a high school English student could find a more elegant way to phrase this and still include the relevant details!
Perhaps it’s something for next weeks’ “After Deadline”…
Jed Christiansen 