Michelle Rhee, D.C.'s former schools chancellor, absolutely loves attention. You might even say she's "voracious" for the media spotlight. She "preens for the camera" at every opportunity — whether it be the cover of Time magazine, or in interviews with Oprah Winfrey and Katie Couric, or as the hero of Waiting for Superman. One thing she will not do, however, is talk to the folks out on Jones Branch Drive in McLean. No, she will not give the USA Today the time of day.

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The New York Times really wants to know why. Michael Winerip open his article yesterday by asking, "Why won’t Michelle Rhee talk to USA Today?" He then proceeds to answer his own question, and the answer is so obvious and expected that it makes you wonder where the big mystery lies. USA Today published a three-part series, "When standardized test scores soared in D.C., were the gains real?," about the unusually high number of wrong-to-right erasures on standardized tests during Rhee's tenure.

So, duh. Rhee won't talk to USA Today because they didn't publish the kind of fawning profile she's come to expect from the national media, including the Times. Nonetheless, Winerip dutifully chronicles Rhee's evasion of USA Today reporters' interview requests, and then closes with his opening question, "Why won't Ms. Rhee talk to USA Today?"

Would someone at the Times please explain it him?