Don't Read All About It

If you're a Seattle Times subscriber, you haven't read about this in the newspaper at your doorstep. But the Times itself has been making news on a popular media Website, Romenesko. Yesterday it was the overreaction to editor Dave Boardman's overreaction to a few staffers who happened to cheer out loud when word of Karl Rove's planned departure hit the newsroom: Boardman lectured them when a well-cocked eyebrow might have done the trick. (The modern Times envisions its newsroom as a temple of thoughtful ethics rather than a Big Top of human nature, and free-spirited outbursts are frowned upon; that's what makes the paper such a lively read, cough). Meanwhile, today on Romenesko, Times reporter Eric Pryne jumps all over Crosscut.com's Bill Richards for claiming the Blethen paper was ignoring a big story about its own finances. Richards (who earlier worked for the Times and SWeekly) reported Wednesday that the McClatchy Co.'s minority stake in the Times has lost 68% of its value in 18 months. Says Pryne in a letter to Romenesko: "his charge that the Times news staff is giving the company a pass is groundless and self-serving. Before we start throwing numbers around, we like to know what they mean." OK, sounds like a story. When will readers of the Times (where--full disclosure--I once worked) get to read it?