Struggling with the egregiousness of Bill Kristol's appointment as a Times colulmnist, I turned in desperation to National Review, where a few years back editor Jay Nordlinger wrote up a serviceable little guide to "going Timesless." It's written from a right perspective, naturally, but makes some good points: the paper can be pompous and dull and pretentious; and why must Maureen Dowd or (the now deceased) R.W. Apple direct the day's conversation? We can add to that list the fact that, as Jesse pointed out, the paper is ridiculously elitist (my favorite recent headline in that regard:"Not Down and Out in Moscow"). Nordlinger writes:

The proliferation of media has lessened the importance of the Times; so have the newspaper's mistakes (which include too great a kinship with the Democratic National Committee). To be sure, there are some unmissable individuals in the paper, such as John F. Burns in Iraq. But, seemingly every day, journalists and others are discovering that they don't have to consume the whole deal.

Nordlinger also cites the good counsel--now freshly relevant--of George Seldes, the great investigative reporter of the last century. One of Seldes' books had a chapter titled "How to Read the Editorial Pages." There was just one word: "Don't."