Some reporters and editors at The New York Times have all sorts of psychological problems -- most seriously, delusions of grandeur.

Editor (Peter) Putrimas was angrier than a metrosexual out of hair gel - especially when I called Times editors "largely unseen boobs."

"A Jayson Blair slipped through our net and now we must pay the price, even to the point of putting up with hacks in the hinterlands like you who think they know a lot but who use their journalistic forum to foment half-truths and unfounded opinion," he sneered in an e-mail.

He unloaded rote bravado: that Times editors are a dedicated bunch who take to the ramparts to protect high standards of journalism.

Just because a guy is working for a small town paper and you work for the Times, it doesn't mean you're smarter than he is.

But writer J.D. Mullane is exactly right about one thing.

The New York Times no longer represents the gold standard of journalism.

Tinfoil, maybe, but not gold.

Exactly.