I'm made uncomfortable by the suggestion that the NYT's lending troubles are evidence of obvious mismanagement at the company. That's almost like saying a journalistic enterprise should be run with one eye constantly trained on the company's debt rating. To me that sounds like a recipe for mediocrity -- even if it's profitable mediocrity.

Of course you can't go too far in the other direction and blow off your creditors entirely. But in the current borderline-hysterical economic environment, I propose that credit quality has almost nothing to do with business fundamentals -- so evidence of a company's borrowing troubles actually demonstrates very little. And to suggest otherwise is to overlook the biggest story in the world during the last two months.

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