How keenly in tune? Ah, we'll see, because journalism is morphing into something different than it has been. Audiences are changing, as are technologies. Less than 20 percent of young Americans read newspapers; the average age of a network news audience is 60. Where did everybody go? To blogs, those caustic, combative Internet diaries; to Internet newspaper sites; to Comedy Central for Jon Stewart's take on the news; to ... to nowhere in particular. News? Politics? Presidents? It matters? Aw, come on ... A considerable number of Americans seem not to care deeply about "the news" -- nor have the news' traditional purveyors yet figured out how to change their minds and inclinations.

 One likely step in the right direction is that of restoring faith in the news: its accuracy and reliability, the good faith of its narrators and its comparative impartiality. This is civics stuff -- dull and earnest-sounding, as lively as a hip hopper on Sominex. Stewart makes regular sport of Serious News, and the fans yuck it up. And yet, when all's said, the founders thought "civics stuff" important enough to enshrine in the First Amendment, the free speech, free press, free religion amendment.

 Can we believe those who bring us the news? Are they telling us the truth? That's maybe the central question here. If we can't believe them, the news bearers might as well go into piccolo-tuning or e-trading, for any good they now achieve. The Times management seemingly has a grip on this point. Let us hope for all our sakes they don't relax it. Their top 10 reform list points a great institution, and the profession it represents to many, in just the right direction. At last!