Judge Jed Rakoff's discussion of why prosecutors have avoided criminal charges against those responsible for the financial crisis is the topic of a news article in today's Times by Adam Liptak. Mr. Liptak frames the story as follows:
Judge Jed S. Rakoff wants to know why. In a blistering essay in the issue of The New York Review of Books that arrives this week, he argues that the Justice Department has failed in its rudimentary responsibilities, offering excuses instead of action.
That makes it seem like the Times is ahead of the story, or at least on top of it — "arrives this week."
In fact the Rakoff story was covered on the Web site FutureOfCapitalism.com back on December 6, on the basis of an article the judge posted November 15 on a Columbia Law School blog. Mr. Liptak does not mention either the FutureOfCapitalism post or the Columbia Law School blog post. It's a small point, but the effect is to make it look like the Times is ahead of the news rather than behind it.