Time for a Change

This small exercise in transparency raises some intriguing questions. Would it be useful for readers to know, depending on the subject matter, that a reporter is black, or gay, or married, or Jewish, or a registered Democrat? And where would editors draw the line?

"Maybe we should do it more often," says Times Assistant Managing Editor Glenn Kramon, noting that readers might benefit from knowing Adam Liptak is a lawyer and C.J. Chivers, now in Iraq, is a former Marine. Lawrence Altman, he adds, is identified as an M.D. in his "Doctor's World" column. In Henriques's case, says Kramon, "we thought some readers might ask, 'What does she know about religion?' "

Snow Sorry

As mentioned in this space last week, White House spokesman Tony Snow delivered a pretty hard shot to NBC's David Gregory during a contentious briefing on the Iraq Study Group.

After paraphrasing the group's report and chairmen, Gregory asked: "Can this report be seen as anything other than a rejection of this president's handling of the war?" Snow promptly accused him of "trying to frame it in a partisan way."

Snow told Gregory at a briefing Thursday that he had concluded he was "wrong . . . so I want to apologize and tell you I'm sorry for it." The spokesman told Washington Post Radio he decided it was "unfair" to suggest Gregory is "deliberately doing work on behalf of Democrats."

Gregory is taking the high road: "I appreciated his apology."

More Time . . .

Speaking of Time, some folks are saying that its Person of the Year--"You"--is a bit of a copout. But it gets at something about the digital revolution. Here's why Rick Stengel says the empowering of the individual is important:

"There are lots of people in my line of work who believe that this phenomenon is dangerous because it undermines the traditional authority of media institutions like TIME. Some have called it an 'amateur hour.' And it often is. But America was founded by amateurs."

NBC's Brian Williams, who suggested the idea, says: "Americans have decided the most important person in their lives is . . . them, and our culture is now built upon that idea. It's the User-Generated Generation."

Nora Ephron's reaction: "It never crossed my mind that when I was finally named Person of the Year by Time Magazine, which I seem to have been, I would find it out by reading the morning newspaper on the actual day Time Magazine appeared. It never occurred to me that they would be able to assemble an entire article about me without even calling.

"I was busy this week, it's true, I had a lot of Christmas shopping, but I could have squeezed them in. But I realize now that this was just part of how brilliant it all is on the part of Time, how fantastically cutting-edge and New Media! Do an article about someone and don't even call them! It's so now! It's so bloggy! . . .

"Still, I can't quite believe it. I'm easy to reach. I so have things to say about being Person of the Year. Time might want to know how I manage to Do It All, which I do. They might want my favorite new recipe, for leek bread pudding (although they could copy it out of the December Martha Stewart, where I got it). They might want to know about my favorite new ice cream flavor (Haagen-Dazs caramel cone), although I already mentioned it in a recent blog, God forbid there should be any fact about me that isn't known to just about everyone. I mean, that's how it is here in the new digital democracy, we tell everyone everything."