Mr. Rosenthal's logic would also apply to news bylines, so we should get rid of them too. They are "kind of an anachronism," and "a little bit of an affectation." After all, a news story is "really about the reader" and "not about ourselves."

When I see someone's byline on a story, I assume the person did the reporting and the writing. I thought that was the purpose of a byline. If that's not true, a byline has no purpose. I don't assume a column with someone's byline on it was written or reported by someone else. And if the quotes gathered by the flunky were "unremarkable," why put them in the story?

But to Mr. Rosenthal, a byline is just a marketing gimmick. For all I know, Maureen Dowd's columns are written by Martians.