Question — But Do Not Otherwise Harass — the Man Behind the Curtain
It is, we suppose, admirable and duly transparent and webby and so forth that Times editor Bill Keller will deign to answer questions from readers this week. We noticed the announcement linked from the paper's homepage this weekend:
Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times, will answer questions in this space about the newspaper and the news. Questions will be selected from e-mails sent to asktheeditors@nytimes.com, and Mr. Keller will answer as many this week as time permits. Afterward, these discussions will continue with other Times editors.
When should the questions be sent in by? When will he answer them? How much time will he spend doing so? Will he simply answer questions as they come in until he runs out of time, as that blurb sort of suggests, or will they be pre-screened by someone else? Are there certain topics that will be out of bounds? (If only there was some newsgathering organization that could ferret out these details.)
Because we don't quite understand how their system will work, we'll implement one of our own: Send us your best queries for Keller. (Mail them to tips@gawker.com with the subject line Keller.) We'll pick our top five at the end of the day, and we'll submit them to Keller on your behalf. (And we'll even set the priority to high on the email. That'll definitely get his attention!) We have no doubt Gawker's imprimatur will ensure your questions get answered.
Or else ensure they get ignored. One of the two.
