Has Jill Abramson, the new executive editor of the New York Times, been taking lessons from Newt Gingrich on how to start a new venture, and Anthony Weiner on how to handle an embarrassment? For sheer ham-handed incompetence, it would be hard to top the new editrix.  Her embarrassing comment on the Times substituting for religion (which neither she nor any other editor realized was ridiculous) has now been scrubbed, as noted here and here.

Way to go, Jill.  Demonstrate to all that you believe in covering up embarrsing facts. All signs point to you outdoing your predecessor Bill Keller in driving away readers and advertisers.

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Ms. Abramson, 57, said that as a born-and-raised New Yorker, she considered being named editor of The Times to be like "ascending to Valhalla."

"In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion," she said. "If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth."