Craig S. Smith's "Jiang's a Poet Up There With Mao (on Billboards)" says the poetry of China's Communist party chief Jiang Zemin is being taught alongside some of his country's greatest poetry.

While the New York Times' crack team of writers, editors and copyeditors is quick to subtly cast this revelation as a slick, legacy-preserving propaganda move, the paper fails to reprint any of Jiang's poetry, save a line at the very end of the article. Such a move would allow Times readers to evaluate the verse's merit without a meddling Gray Lady middlewoman.

The reason for the Times is simple, as illustrated by these few lines from Jiang's pen:

This nuanced verse (in English, no less) shows the Chinese leader to be anything but a run-of-the-mill hack, yet to publish it would erode the Times subtle editorializing about Jiang's lack of talent.

Dumber Times will pontificate on this matter no more. Instead it will leave you with more splendid Jiang poetry.

Fortune cookies
Positively ookie
That Americans think we really eat them