NY Sun

I've noticed among the obits of the NY Sun today many kind words including positive comments from those the Sun had done battle with frequently and recently. The general consensus is that they tried their damnedest to commit newspapering. The NY Observer even went to far as to note that the PBS Newshour was incorrect in giving the NYT credit for breaking the story of US troops making cross-border raids into Pakistan - the Sun had had that story a full week before the Times.

And the law professor Ann Althouse posted this photo of the newsroom:

Children, look closely: that's a newsroom. Wooden floors, desks in an open plan that puts writers within yelling distance of editors, phones buried under files and folders. It's not hard to imagine the occasional bottle of bourbon hidden in a lower drawer. As the Great Vultee liked to say - it's enough to make you volunteer for overtime.

I read the Sun obits in my usual morning round of journalism news sites, and by some evil coincidence the next item I read was about a court tossing out a case against a reporter. Good news usually, but a sad story in that it was a newspaper suing the reporter. Susan Paterno had written a fairly entertaining account of Wendy McCaw's tenure at the Santa Barbara News-Press, including MaCaw's promotion of her boyfriend from food critic to co-publisher:

Paterno wins attorney's fees, at least. But it's sad to think that idiots like McCaw are running the newspaper world these days while the NY Sun goes down despite a valiant effort.