I agree with Les Payne who said--only half kidding--that there ought to be a RICO investigation of the Pulitzer board, and I agree with many of the underlying sentiments in your blog. You fail to acknowledge, however, that the few remaining serious newspapers in this country are suffering a virtual holocaust and the profession is hemorrhaging its most dedicated practitioners. With morale so low and prospects so bleak, with foreign bureaus being shut down and entertainment consuming everything around it, is this really the moment to stop trying to identify and honor those who keep the best traditions of democratic journalism alive? I don't see much difference between a symbolic pause and throwing in the towel once and for all. Perhaps the answer is to reconstitute the board and its criteria not simply abdicate.

Philip Kay

New York City, NY