Two scandals that weren't.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: TILTING at windmills - Brief article

Two recent articles in the New York Times have made me wonder which Times editors were asleep the day they were published. One, by Motoko Rich, ran as the lead article on the front page with the headline "'No Child' Law Whittled Down by the White House--Waivers for 26 States." The headline suggests, as does a considerable part of the article, that there may be something scandalous going on. It's not until the eleventh paragraph, which doesn't appear until the jump page, that the reader is given any idea that the administration is granting the waivers to provide flexibility and persuade states to adopt its Race to the Top program--though the words "Race to the Top" never appear in the article, and the program is only briefly explained in two of its twenty-nine-paragraphs. Ironically, a subsequent lead editorial in the Times, instead of questioning Race to the Top, praised it for providing incentives for reform that are long overdue.

The other piece was headlined "Obama Biography Brings New Scrutiny to President's Own Memoir." Its author...