Bill Keller Begs Redditors Not to Ask About the NYT, They Do Anyway
In a show of incredible executive strength, Bill Keller, former New York Times editor and current editor of criminal justice-focused start-up The Marshall Project, attempted to lay down some ground rules before his Reddit AMA today.
The journalist, who has covered "everything from end of white rule in South Africa to the breakup of the Soviet Union" to how one should suffer from cancer, pleaded with Redditors to ask him about anything BUT the place at which he worked for 30 years and defined his entire career.
Feel free to ask me anything about what it's like to run a startup news organization or what I've learned so far about our criminal justice system or what escapist TV I'm watching at the moment, but, please oh please, NOT about the NYT.
Redditors, a canny bunch, proceeded to ask him numerous questions about the Times straight off the bat. And in a second show of steely resolve, Keller...answered them.
When asked about the Times's drug-testing rules for employees, Keller wrote, "I make a policy of not second-guessing my former colleagues in public, but I agree (and expect a lot of people at the NYT do, too) that the inconsistency is increasingly difficult to defend." (What do you think? Did Keller break his policy here?)
Keller then divulged that his favorite television show is Boss, starring Kelsey Grammer. "Originally on Starz, no available on Netflix, [sic]" Keller wrote.
He also talked a little about the death penalty.
Valuable information from a true journalist.