Since (full disclosure) I love to hate The Times, post-Easter generosity prompts my giving credit where credit is due.

First their report today on the pressure brought on China to take some action regarding the genocide in Dafur. The newspaper of record even acknowledges the role played by Mia Farrow, citing her op-ed piece in (gasp) The Wall Street Journal -- a piece I previously posted on dotCommonweal.

Here, in part is The Times' story:

Just when it seemed safe to buy a plane ticket to Beijing for the2008 Olympic Games, nongovernmental organizations and other groupsappear to have scored a surprising success in an effort to link theOlympics, which the Chinese government holds very dear, to the killingsin Darfur, which, until recently, Beijing had not seemed too concernedabout.

Ms. Farrow, a good-will ambassador for the UnitedNations Childrens Fund, has played a crucial role, starting a campaignlast month to label the Games in Beijing the Genocide Olympics andcalling on corporate sponsors and even Mr. Spielberg, who is anartistic adviser to China for the Games, to publicly exhort China to dosomething about Darfur. In a March 28 op-ed article in The Wall StreetJournal, she warned Mr. Spielberg that he could go down in history asthe Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games, a reference to a German filmmaker who made Nazi propaganda films.

Four days later, Mr. Spielberg sent a letter to President Hu Jintaoof China, condemning the killings in Darfur and asking the Chinesegovernment to use its influence in the region to bring an end to thehuman suffering there, according to Mr. Spielbergs spokesman, MarvinLevy.

China soon dispatched Mr. Zhai to Darfur, a turnaroundthat served as a classic study of how a pressure campaign, aimed tostrike Beijing in a vulnerable spot at a vulnerable time, couldaccomplish what years of diplomacy could not.

Then how about this sample of "Letters to the Editor:"

To the Editor:

So, presumed guilty by fashionable black-white,rich-poor, athlete-nonathlete stereotypes, Dukes lacrosse players turnout to be innocent victims.

I saw and despised Senator Joseph R.McCarthy. But McCarthyism never gained a tenth the oppressive mindcontrol of todays academic and media political correctness.

Charles Fred
Maspeth, Queens, April 12, 2007

To the Editor:

Thedefense attorneys also pilloried the press for piling on early in theDuke rape case investigation. The Times should examine its reporting inthis case and report to us, its loyal readers, as to how it contributedor did not contribute to this miscarriage of justice.

Henry Belch
Fairfax, Va., April 12, 2007

Now let's hear from the Public Editor.