Some warmed-over blog fodder, as I haven't been keeping up.
Tom and the Testy Copyfolk are busy linking to this example of modern newspaper column-writing.
What can I say?
Bad taste? Yep. Not that funny? Yep. Playing too loose with the race thing? Yep. Unforgivable? Not quite. But someone should have mentioned it was a bad idea. And then yelled about it if people didn't listen.
Meanwhile -- The same folk don't like NY Times ombudsguy Daniel Okrent's comment that his "copy will not be edited, except for grammar, spelling, and the like."
Does it come across as a slap at copy editors? To a point. But I read it as him underlining the fact his column will be independent of the Times hierarchy. Given the people out there that want to watch the newspaper bleed, that's a distinction worth making.
As long as he stays away from writing in dialect.