What if the N.Y. Times just quit?

     That's the proposition Michael Hirschorn throws out in The Atlantic in a rambling, full of fact and supposition, challenging essay. Hirschorn at least plays lip service to the real loss, which would be in reporting and, frankly, gatekeeping. The gatekeeping role so hated by both political wings of America is needed more than ever now, I think.  Who knows how accurate that story on Google News is when I don't know anything about the writer or publication?  I'm reading Indian papers now that go on and on about Pakistani lies. Accurate? Propaganda? I don't know. If I had read them for a year, I'd know whether they were independent or just mouthed a line.

      Anyway, the essay is well worth reading just for sparking your thoughts.