CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM WOULD MAKE POLITICS NASTY AND FRENCH-LIKE: A friend pointed out that the New York Times, which has campaigned (so to speak) for campaign finance restrictions on its editorial page, apparently doesn’t read its own news reports. How else to explain these lines, from Suzanne Daley’s March 8 report, “A Rough Week on Chirac Campaign Trail”: “Campaigning for office in France is a highly restricted business, with virtually no political advertising allowed. To make up for it, the political parties feed journalists damaging stories about their opponents.”

(Note: I tried to find this story on the Times site, and failed; but it is in Nexis.)