It is becoming high fashion, in some circles, to sling an occasional shot at the New York Times. The temptation is both powerful and understandable. The Times is such a big, smug, solid target that any individual is bound to add a journalistic cubit to his stature by taking it on. Victory, moreover, is cheap: the writer demonstrates– usually quite convincingly– either (a) that he knows more about a particular comer of the world than the Times’ correspondent there, or (b) that he writes far better than the average Timesman. The net effect of these incidents is to inflict a superficial wound upon the Times’ self-esteem. Predictably enough, recovery is swift and complete.