Damn Straight, Bill

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller spent the past week in Iran, covering the country's highly suspicious, revolution-inducing presidential election. Seeing his first byline from Tehran, on June 14, was certainly surprising. Keller built his career as a Times correspondent in Moscow and Johannesburg, but the executive editor of the New York Times was out in the streets, carrying a notebook and pen in his hands? It's something akin to Steve Ballmer sitting down in the adjacent cubicle to work on Outlook's programming code.

Keller quickly proved why he's won a Pulitzer Prize and risen to be the Times' executive editor. While every U.S. reporter, of the few who were/are there, covered the (incredibly important) events in Tehran, Keller headed to Isfahan. When I saw the dateline, I had to type "Isfahan" into Google to learn where it is. Turns out it's Iran's third-largest city, 340 kilometers south of Tehran. Iran is much more than Tehran; simple concept, no? Keller actually thought of it, in the midst of revolt, and he sent this insightful dispatch: the protests there are more violent and the policing much more harsh.

When asked about traveling to Iran, Keller said: "I've had a few bizarre vibes from people outside the NYT who are puzzled by my presence in Tehran. Do people in the media crit game really think editors are supposed to be desk jockeys who never go get a sense of the story? Or is the idea that when a big, exhausting news breaks visiting editors should hole up in the hotel and let the reporters do all the work? Weird." (Quote via Romenesko.)

Damn straight. Any good company's foundation is the content produced by its imaginative, intrepid and intelligent staff. Good managers get it. Keller gets it. That's why he heads to the world's fifth-most (seventh-most?) dangerous country for its momentous election, and why he endlessly defends the country's (world's?) best news product, even when he looks bad on "The Daily Show" because of it. Keller is out there, while the Huffington Post, Gawker et al whine about it from the Lower East Side and create nothing original.

Newspapers are dead. You're worse off for it. Long live newspapers.

Update: Iran's Islamic regime has essentially crushed the opposition. Watching events unfold the past three weeks, I couldn't help think if George W. Bush were still president whether his administration would push a regime change. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing.