This is an interesting column by Daniel Okrent, public editor of the NY Times. It's about the difficulty of getting a letter to the editor published if you directly take on a Times writer.

An excerpt:

... "What recourse do I have if I've been misrepresented, mischaracterized or maligned by The Times, especially if the editors disagree?" And the question even larger than that, at least in terms of the number of readers who have raised it: "Why can't I criticize The Times in the pages of The Times?"

The cheap answer would be, "Because that's my job." The pertinent answer - the one newspaper people have been using since Gutenberg - is, "Write a letter to the editor." But the unsung coda, in the overwhelming preponderance of cases, is familiar: "even though there's almost no chance it will be published."

The Times needs to find an alternative ending for this depressing tune. Certainly the numbers are impossible. The letters department receives 1,000 messages every day, and publishes 15. Beyond that, many of the paper's readers find certain practices and policies regarding letters either dumbfounding or objectionable. Chief among these is the paper's general hesitance to publish letters that make accusations against The Times, criticize writers or editors, or otherwise call into question the newspaper's fairness, news judgment or professional practices.