Did Pogrebin Pop "The Question" to Glenn Lowry?

Very retentive readers of CultureGrrl may remember that I alerted you to a conference on nonprofit law, which was held today at Fordham Law School in New York.

It included a discussion between Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art and Reynold Levy, president of Lincoln Center, moderated by Robin Pogrebin, cultural reporter for the NY Times.

She had the chance to ask the question that would have been un-duckable, in front of an auditorium full of lawyers: What were the reasons behind Lowry's unorthodox compensation package, which was first exposed in a front-page story in her own newspaper?

She got close, mentioning the departures of Barry Munitz from the Getty and Lawrence Small from the Smithsonian over compensation irregularities. She asked, in this connection, whether Levy and Lowry (good name for a vaudeville act) thought there was "too much oversight or too little."

Levy warned that observers should "beware of generalizing" about other institutions from a few examples, and added, "I find that governance practices are becoming more rigorous."

Lowry chimed in that "governance is a work in progress" and that "best practices change and evolve over time."

One thing that has "changed over time" is the method of Lowry's compensation, which in 2004 was brought into line with customary museum practice.

If there was ever a cue for a respectful but pointed follow-up question, this was it. But Pogrebin dropped the ball (as the Times has on this whole story). I assume that her throwing the game was deliberate, because she's a top-flight reporter and knows what to ask.

Chalk it up, then, to a referee's sense of good sportsmanship or to some groundrules established before the coin toss.