Et tu, Bill Cunningham?

If a picture's worth a thousand words, then why, oh, why does the Times insist on doing these god-awful "audio slide shows?" I can barely stand to read the articles, what with the sloppy writing and editing and typos all over the place (of course, I'm talking about the online edition. I wouldn't blacken my fingers with the actual paper copy), what makes them think that I want to hear their reporters uh-ing and um-img their way through a story?

Saturday mornings I rush to the Fashion and Style section to see Bill Cunningham's "On the Street" column, a collection of photos of whatever fashion trend he's seen a lot of in the past week. Now they've fouled that up by turning it into a "multimedia feature," having Mr. Cunningham narrate the slide show. It's a slide show! I want to see the pictures, and I don't need someone, not even Bill Cunningham, who I love, telling me that what I'm looking at are weird and really unflattering pants.