Maybe when New York Times editor Bill Keller boasted about poaching top talent from the LA Times, he wasn’t expecting LAT editor Jim O’Shea to fire back the way he did. In any case, Keller now says that his comments, which included shots at the WaPo and the Wall Street Journal, were “not an attack,” but rather “a lament“:

“What I’ve said about the troubles of competing papers is not an attack, it’s a lament. I think a strong, competitive LAT (and WashPost and WSJ and so on) is good for us, and good for the country. We all thrive on competition, and readers benefit. I’m lucky to have bosses who give me more latitude than some to invest in good journalists. I wish more papers were doing that. The best journalism news I’ve heard in the past couple of weeks is that the WashPost is aggressively building up its political and national security reporting staffs. That’s terrific news for everyone who cares about news.”

It’s too bad Keller doesn’t see criticism of the Times in the same way: as a lament that crusading partisans have taken over a once-great newspaper. (h/t Romenesko)