Ray Ring

Senior Editor

… in the many stories about taking Idaho-Montana-Wyoming wolves off the endangered species list.

It’s worth a click to The New York Times for this intimate glance at wildness. (I’m providing two links trying to help you around the Times sign-on screen, but if it nabs you, sign-on is free.)

The wolf photo shows how the Times has more to offer than the lame — or at least incomplete — smear job it did yesterday on Sen. John McCain.

The Times is catching a lot of flak from the rightwing professional loudmouths and media critics. At least one respected newspaper in the Times chain refused to publish the smear. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer managing editor explains why he also refused to run it. The noise has obscured the Washington Post’s better — straighter — analysis of McCain’s ties to lobbyists.

When I look at the photo of the wolves circling the big, slow bison, I imagine the Times thought it was a wolf, but now it’s the bison.