Keller Attacks WSJ

The war of words between New York Times editor Bill Keller and Wall Street Journal editor Robert Thomson is entering the late rounds: Keller has responded to a claim by a Journal spokesman that he wrote a letter to the Polk Committee trying to harm the Journal’s chances of winning a Pulitzer. “First, I don’t think the Journal can blame me for its recent Pulitzer drought,” Keller wrote. “[The letter] did not ‘disparage’ or ‘cast aspersions’ on the series itself, which many of us at the Times admired as an example of the in-depth reporting the Journal used to do with some regularity.” The tiff was set off by a New York Times column by David Carr wondering if the Journal has drifted rightward under Rupert Murdoch.