i heard that dunning is leaving the times.

Yeah, I’ve heard that too. She’ll probably get “bought out” (read this article in Slate via Gawker: http://www.slate.com/id/2188417/pagenum/all/#page_start). Although, since The Times newsroom is technically on a “hiring freeze”, there’s no guarantee that they’ll fill her position.

The Times has yet to join the other newspapers that are simply slash-n-burning their corps of critics. Let’s hope they have enough balls not to. After all, cutting critics’ jobs hasn’t raised readership OR advertising dollars. Instead, it’s simply angered a lot of faithful, intelligent readers.