No News is Good News for the NY Times Public Editor

My doubts about whether the chief source for the NY Times' Afghanistan antiquities article yesterday was adequately vetted for reliability made me think again about the lamentable three-week silence of the paper's new public editor, Clark Hoyt.

My concern for his (and his mission's) welfare prompted me to reread the the May 4 official announcement of his appointment, where I discovered these discouraging words:

Mr. Hoyt will publish periodic commentaries about The Times's journalistic practices and current journalistic issues in general, to appear when he believes they are warranted [emphasis added]. His column will run in the Week in Review section.

What column?

I guess there's just been nothing much to say lately about the Times' "journalistic practices and current journalistic issues in general." Am I the only Times-ologist who used to eagerly anticipate the essay by the public editor (or readers' responses to his essay), published every Sunday in the "Week in Review"?

In the May 4 announcement of Hoyt's appointment, Bill Keller, the paper's executive editor, was quoted as saying:

We expect him [Hoyt] to hold us accountable to our own standards, to serve as an advocate for the interests of readers, and to give readers an independent eye into the workings of this great news organization.

But not too often.