“Replacing Michael Kinsley would have been a daunting task for anyone, but the online magazine’s veteran political correspondent has led it up the mountain to profitability and greater recognition…” OJR Among other things. Weisberg talks in this interview about the controversial deal to bring Slate to NPR in the form of the co-produced show Day to Day, about which I just became aware (and which is not carried by either of my two local NPR stations).

I think there are a certain number of people who listen to NPR who are going to hear that a magazine owned by Microsoft is involved with NPR and then think, “My god, NPR is being tainted.” But if NPR is tainted, it’s tainted by all the funding sources it has to have, from foundations that have an agenda to various corporations that sponsor, including Microsoft. But the idea that partnering with an independent-minded magazine that happens to be owned by Microsoft somehow taints them in a way other things they do don’t doesn’t make any sense to me.

And, for those to whom this makes a difference, Doonesbury is now also on Slate.