A Times news article on the naming of a new president of New York University ends this way:
N.Y.U. picked Dr. Hamilton from over 200 nominees. It did not disclose who the other candidates were. But at one point, Michael Lynton, the chief executive of Sony Entertainment, wanted the job, according to emails that were published online during the Sony hacking scandal last year.
According to the emails, Mr. Lynton discussed his desire for the job last fall with the New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell.
Mr. Gladwell told Mr. Lynton, based on a conversation with a New Yorker editor who is married to an N.Y.U. professor and member of the presidential search committee, that "the crucial thing is helping them see you as the nurturer and protector of creative types NOT the corporate empire builder, which they have all had enough of with sexton."
That entire passage is weird. How about this "a conversation with a New Yorker editor who is married to an N.Y.U. professor and member of the presidential search committee." Who was this New Yorker editor? I'm pretty sure the Times reporter who wrote the article used to work at the New Yorker (she also used to work for me at the New York Sun.) Who was the NYU professor? Which one of them was a member of the presidential search committee? Or is that a third person?
It looks to me like Kwame Anthony Appiah was a member of the search committee, and that his spouse, Henry Finder, is editorial director of the New Yorker. The two reportedly share "a university-owned apartment in Tribeca."
And why, in any case, would the Times be printing Malcolm Gladwell's private emails to Michael Lynton that were hacked or stolen, probably by North Korea? Is there enough of a genuine public interest here (rather than prurient gossip) to justify printing someone's private correspondence? There's no sign in the article that these issues were grappled with with any thought.