New Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt passes along a reader query about columnists' outside income to editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal. Rosenthal patiently explains that columnists cannot take money for anything except books they publish, academic work, and the occasional "reasonable" speaking fee. Oh, also:

Reporters and editors in business news, for example, are not permitted to own any company stocks besides NYT company stock. That is also true of masthead-level editors like myself.

Maybe that explains the massive Murdoch takedown campaign: They're jealous.

They Aren't on the Take [NYT]