Reply #19: Keller should have known better in about a dozen ways

[gratuitous]

But the last time he should have known better is when Dame Judith delayed her last submission two Saturdays ago until it was too late to check and the Times had to run it without going over it. In the two weeks since then, a whole host of people have had the time and the luxury to do what the Times didn't: Check Judy's story and find out if it comported with the known facts. It doesn't.

And now Keller is caught in an unseemly public brawl with his reporter, both of them shrieking like banshees about alleged inaccuracies, corners cut and truth fudged. Keller, who knew or should have known that Judy and the truth don't walk arm-in-arm, rushed her account into print in a slavish devotion to an artificial deadline. Did he think that Judy would suddenly begin telling the truth with an indictment and some serious criminal charges hanging over her head? Or did he think that Judy would never, e-e-e-ever lie right in his face?

Either way, Keller's a chump and Judy's has written her last words for the New York Times. Whether Keller hangs onto his job is about the only question left to be resolved. If he does, then the Times' reputation is truly irretrievable.