Best in the Business

The New York Times proved once again Sunday why it remains this country's premier news outlet. Despite its highly publicized mistakes, the Times still out classes all competition. Among the gems on Sunday's front page were Pete Thamel's and Duff Wilson's great investigation, "Poor Grades Aside, Top Athletes Get to College on $399 Diploma,"
www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/sports/ncaafootball/27school.html?th&emc=th
and Riva D. Atlas' and Mary Williams Walsh's well-reported and disturbing "Pension Officers Putting Billions into Hedge Funds." www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/business/yourmoney/27hedge.html?th&emc=th
The Op-Ed page features Nicholas D. Kristof's "A Tolerable Genocide." I don't normally highlight the work of columnists because I am more interested in original reporting, but Kristof deserves a second Pulitzer for his brave and compelling work from Darfur. http://select.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/opinion/27kristof.html?th&emc=th
Finally, there's Barry Bearak's monumental "The Day the Sea Came" in the magazine section, www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/magazine/27tsunami1.html?th&emc=th, which gives an incredible minute-by-minute account of how last December's tsunami destroyed the Indonesian province of Aceh. I'm still reading it, but I'm confident that it's a story people will be pointing to for years. I don't personally know any of these reporters or their editors, but I am grateful for their work.