This seems promising

You hate to get your hopes up, but Okrent’s replacement seems like he might actually be up to the task — in stark contrast to his predecessor…

I also plan to make greater use of the Web. I intend to post more actual reader e-mails – with responses from Times editors and perhaps from me, if appropriate – on the Public Editor’s Web Journal. My first commentary, posted there two weeks ago, questioned the Washington bureau’s slowness in pursuing the significance of the so-called Downing Street memo on planning for the Iraq war.

* * *

Where am I coming from in terms of my attitudes and perspectives on life and journalism? Simply put, I would say The Times has a public editor with an instinctive affinity for the underdog and an enduring faith in a free press.

Developing, as the kids say…