When New York Times executive editor Bill Keller called viewers of Fox News "among the most cynical people on planet Earth" during a Q&A session last Thursday with City College of New York journalism students, we immediately began to wonder which of the network's heavy hitters would be first to address the topic in a public forum. Glenn Beck? He's active on Twitter, and could use the ratings bump. What about Bill O'Reilly? This O'Reilly-is-actually-quite-reasonable talk has to be driving him nuts. Maybe John Gibson? His show was cancelled three years ago, but he always seemed like a team player.

The answer was none of the above. First whack at Keller went to Fox contributor Liz Trotta--that's right, the Liz Trotta--on Saturday afternoon. After a slow start in which she confusingly curiously deemed Keller 'mildly photogenic' and read from the dictionary, Trotta hit her stride late in the segment, dismissing the Times as a "throwaway newspaper...dissolving in red ink."

Your move, Handsome Bill Keller.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rgustini at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Ray Gustini