As the New York Times' third public editor, Knight Ridder vet Clark Hoyt is making the newsroom tour. Introducing himself, answering questions, sharing cupcakes. He even made it as far away as Washington, D.C. (monuments!) to talk to the Times' bureau there, which is the bureau responsible for escalating Tony Snow's blood pressure and other matters of import.

So how'd Clark fair?

Mikey Calderone is on it, y'all:

During a one-hour presentation, Mr. Hoyt was said to have presented some broad Journalism 101 principles—sourcing, attribution and so on—but did not make any overt criticisms of the bureau.

“It was not an attempt to win him over, or for him to win us over,” said Dean Baquet, the Washington bureau chief who was brought in March 2007 to run the bureau after he left his job as executive editor of the Los Angeles Times. “I think he has a job to do. He happens to be someone who spends a lot of time in Washington. Washington ends up being something he’s got to write about.”

A Washington bureau staffer said that Mr. Hoyt “seem[ed] like someone who was open to listening and wanted to start off on a good footing.”

Good footing, indeed. He's already called out the Times for being a puppet in President Bush's quote machine — how much more of a welcome wagon does one need?