Ethan Bronner and the New York Times

Yet, again, the New York Times comes to the rescue of Ethan Bronner.  Just imagine the Times' reaction if the violation was not about links to Israel and its army but about links to Hamas and Hizbullah by a Times' correspondent.  I doubt that the offense would merely be in the area of "appearance of impropriety".  Comrade Max Blumenthal is devoting so much of energy to track the bias of this man but I can assure Max of this: no matter what Bronner does, the paper will come to his defense.  I mean, if Max produces a picture of Bronner commanding Israeli terrorists in South Lebanon, the Times would respond by saying: the paper is confident in the professional abilities of Bronner and believes that he can maintain his objectivity while engaged in killing of Arabs in South Lebanon.  I can see the paper may be conceding that there may be an "appearance" of conflict of interest but not sufficient as grounds for reassignment.