Baquet Explains It All

Yesterday, Dean Baquet phoned The Observer from a train that was returning him to Washington, D.C., where he is the bureau chief for The New York Times.

He was concerned that readers might be confused about one of his quotes in our report on the Livingston Awards.

The Observer spoke with Mr. Baquet after the Livingston luncheon at the Yale Club on Tuesday, June 5. When asked his opinion on Rupert Murdoch’s bid to buy Dow Jones & Co. from the Bancroft family, Mr. Baquet said:

“The competition would be great! I could use that as an excuse to get more people in our Washington bureau, so take that down.”

Mr. Baquet wanted to explain that his response to the question was in direct reference to Mr. Murdoch’s apparent plans to beef up the Wall Street Journal’s Washington coverage if the NewsCorp bid goes through.

Got that, everybody?