BWC 2009 keynote speaker's latest in Vanity Fair

Our keynote speaker for 2009, Mark Bowden, also contributes to Vanity Fair. Here's an excerpt from his latest, an examination of the New York Times, its ownership, and what forces of economy and character have combined to endanger one of the country's great newspapers.

America is not kind to the heir. He is a stereotypical figure in our literature, and not an appealing one at that. He tends to be depicted as weak, pampered, flawed, a diluted strain of the hardy founding stock. America celebrates the self-made. Unless an heir veers sharply from his father’s path, he is not taken seriously. Even in middle age he seems costumed, a pretender draped in oversize clothes, a boy who has raided his father’s closet. The depiction may be unfair, but it is what it is.