The Boston Herald's Jules Crittendon encourages New York Times public editor Byron Calame to look a little deeper into the elite journalist's mindset.

Calame’s mea culpa has a bit of the dog-ate-my-homework about it. As blogger Don Surber noted, Calame blamed his opinion in part for his sympathy with the "underdog" -- the New York Times -- under the onslaught of vociferous reaction from the Bush administration to its reporting. On what planet the New York Times is underdog, I don’t know. And perhaps it was nagging embarrassment at his own excess enthusiasm for unwarranted victimhood that prompted Calame’s about-face. But that’s beside the point.

There has been at least one outraged and well-principled call for Calame’s resignation, at the prominent conservative blog www.patterico.com. But not so fast, Byron.Your work is not done. You may yet redeem yourself.

Prior to exiting, Byron, you may consider launching a soul-searching campaign at the New York Times.I’d encourage a look at the decision to report on the National Security Agency’s warrantless electronic monitoring of emails and phone calls between the United States and suspect individual overseas.The outrage your paper and others stirred up over a program that falls well within the law and harms no law-abiding American citizen, and the notice you served to terrorists and their supporters of its existence, constitute aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war.

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