In "Silken Prey," author John Sandford critiques the editorial style of The Times, characterizing it as overly serious and stilted. The phrase "portentous constipation" suggests that the newspaper's gravitas is often unnatural, leading to an inability to express genuine emotion. Instead of responding with appropriate sadness to the news of a civil servant's scandal, The Times masks its excitement behind a façade of feigned sorrow, revealing a contradiction in its editorial...