I get why New York people read the New York Times, what I don't get is why people elsewhere read it - and I have said publicly I am sure many in science would happily trade a 3-day waiting period on gun purchases if the NY Times would agree to a 3-day wait period on its science stories; in both cases so the suspects can be investigated thoroughly.

Executive editor Bill Keller is going back to writing and his deputy, Jill Abramson, is replacing him.   The nonsensical metaphors began early.  Being named editor of The Times is like "ascending to Valhalla," she said.   In other words, it's where you go after you die and then you engage in fake work on the off chance you need to be resurrected to do real work when the world ends.  So if her career is resurrected at Ragnarok she will need to make sure the Times carries a headline like "World Ends!  Women, Minorities Impacted Most".

It gets better.  She goes out of her way to alienate any religious people in the United States who still have the self-loathing to read the Times - "In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion.   If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth."

Yes, yes, you want to insure the readers of the Times you think religious people are stupid and gullible.   The problem is, the revenue at the Times has been plummeting and they blame the Internet, which sounds egalitarian and exculpatory, but really the Times has no one to blame but themselves:  Get back to being a paper of record, stop telling one side of complex topics and, please, stop executive editors from spouting nonsense the day their appointment is announced.
 
Abramson to Replace Keller as The Times’s Executive Editor