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Liptak has to wonder: WWLD?

By Mark Obbie

Tell me Adam Liptak didn't feel Linda Greenhouse staring down at his fingers as he typed this one. The day after Greenhouse published an op-ed calling a pending Voting Rights Act appeal a big honkin' deal (the case, she wrote, "promises to tell us more than almost any other about John G. Roberts Jr. and his evolution from spear carrier in the Reagan revolution to chief justice of the United States — and in the process set the direction of the debate over race and politics for years to come"), Liptak had to sit down at his computer and report that the Supreme Court had agreed to hear the case. Liptak, in reporter mode, was less sweeping in his rhetoric, drily remarking that the case "will help define the Roberts court."I'm not suggesting anything untoward here. Times readers benefit from having the recently departed Greenhouse's insights alongside the reporter/analyst who replaced her. And I'll leave the substantive critique of either or both pieces to experts and partisans. I'm merely making an office-politics observation. I imagine, having replaced a number of legends (in their own minds) on various newsroom beats, that poor Liptak -- after replacing an actual legend -- must have felt a pang of insecurity as he typed the first words.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on January 10, 2009 (boomark / email).