The difference between Mark Twain and Dean Baquet...

Twain got the joke.

From Politico via Waldman:

Newly available CIA records obtained by Judicial Watch, the conservative watchdog group, reveal that New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti forwarded an advance copy of a Maureen Dowd column to a CIA spokesperson — a practice that is widely frowned upon within the industry.
...
New York Times Managing Editor Dean Baquet called POLITICO to explain the situation, but provided little clarity, saying he could not go into detail on the issue because it was an intelligence matter.
...

"The optics aren't what they look like," he went on. 

In addition to the oxymoronic aspect, there's also the innately comic implication that a Maureen Dowd column could actually contain useful information.

p.s. I was originally going to post this earlier but I decided I needed to spread out the snideness.