Reporters as novelists, according to James Fallows

REPORTERS AS NOVELISTS: James Fallows criticises the New York Times' use of the following passage. "Mr. Murdoch was attending a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, in early July when it became clear that the latest eruption of the hacking scandal was not, as he first thought, a passing problem. According to a person briefed on the conversation, he proposed to one senior executive that he "fly commercial to London," so he might be seen as man of the people."

The last few words of the passage amounts to a merciless and unforgettable twist of the knife, in the guise of an innocent explanatory phrase. Congratulations to Jo Becker and Ravi Somaiya, whose bylines are on the story, and anyone else involved in the chronicle. Story as a whole has a lot of other riveting details too.

Agreed. Fallows also makes what seems a rather apt comparison to coverage of the Watergate scandal.  Read his whole post (the article, too, if you have time).