I’ve been critical of Barney Calame, the Times outgoing obmudsman, but as he ends his tenure, I do want to acknowledge that he did become more aggressive taking on the paper’s missteps and it’s fascinating that he’s critical of his own writing. The ombud ombudding himself:
“If I could write the way Dan Okrent could write, I think some of the things I wanted to say would have penetrated the readership of the Times better,” Calame said during a phone conversation from his Manhattan apartment. “I think it could have been done much better, the writing, conceptualizing of how you told a story. I am simply not that good of a writer.”
Here‘s Calame’s own clear-eyed assessment of his tenure.
By the way, in two weeks, I’m going to the annual gathering of ombudsmen to be on a panel about — what else? — blogging. I’ll be blogging from there.
