Daily Inspiration Quote by Daniel Okrent

Calling the Times “great” and “profoundly fallible” in the same breath is classic editor talk: praise without piety, criticism without performative outrage. Daniel Okrent isn’t trying to dunk on the institution; he’s asserting a grown-up standard for how power should be discussed when it comes wrapped in prestige. The line lands because it refuses the two lazy scripts that dominate media discourse: the Times as unimpeachable oracle, or the Times as irredeemable villain. He stakes out a third position that feels both more honest and more destabilizing.

The intent is calibration. “Great” acknowledges the paper’s reach, resources, and agenda-setting force - its ability to shape what the country argues about before breakfast. “Profoundly” is the barb. It implies the errors aren’t just occasional typos or isolated misjudgments; they can be structural, recurring, and consequential. Fallibility at that scale matters because the Times’ mistakes don’t stay in the newsroom. They become talking points, policy justifications, and historical record.

Okrent’s context matters: as the Times’ first public editor, he was hired precisely because the paper had to be seen interrogating itself, especially after high-profile credibility crises in the early 2000s. The subtext is a defense of institutional self-skepticism. He’s telling readers: trust the work, not the aura; respect the craft, not the brand. For an editor, that’s also a subtle warning to colleagues - greatness isn’t a permanent property, it’s a performance that has to survive scrutiny.