I've noticed an unfortunate change in The New York Times Web site recently. Until the past couple of weeks, all of the Times reporting for the last 30 days was available, free of charge, on the Web. Articles older than 30 days cost some cash to see. Also, a direct link to any Times story, if created when the article was free, would still go to the article even past the 30 day limit.

Well, the Times has closed the loophole and changed the 30 day limit to 7 days. A list of Krugman's columns shows only the two most-recent available for free.

This is, of course, the Times perogative, but it makes my job as a watchdog more difficult. Without access to a database like Lexis-Nexis, checking for consistency, hypocrisy and changing explanations becomes more difficult. This isn't a complaint, but an explanation. I will continue to do what I can, but be forewarned that the job is just a little bit tougher.