A small nugget that seems to have slipped by my notice:  It looks like former Washington Post reporter Peter Baker has moved over to the New York Times to cover the Obama White House.

A personal note, for a moment – Baker was my high school\’s newspaper editor-in-chief a few years before I took over the reins.  He came back to our school several times after taking his first job as a young reporter with the Washington Post (once to cover a horrific suicide at our school, where a student crashed his motorcycle into a brick wall), and I had the occasion to talk to him a little.  I still have a letter he wrote me when I was editor of \”The Orange Peal,\” (when he was editor, it was called the \”Farm News,\” but I hated it, so I got the staff to change it), offering me encouragement when entering the field of journalism.  (Apparently, it wasn\’t enough encouragement, given what I do for a living now – but it was always appreciated.)

Aside from being a nice guy and a class act, he is also clearly an outstanding reporter. Obviously, as he has ascended to White House Correspondent for the New York Times, a few important people think so, too.  I\’ve read two of his books and a great number of his reports throughout the years, and I honestly can\’t tell where his political persuasions lie.  And I look pretty closely for that type of thing.

Oh, and not that it matters, but he is also a frequent guest on \”Washington Week,\” on PBS, some episodes of which can be seen here.