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Almost exactly a year ago the new York Times ran Notes From the Chairman, ie, U2’s Bono, a legend in his own mind.

“I don’t sing and Bono shouldn’t write,” said Bob Lefsetz at the time.

Now the NYT has done it again, giving the Chairman of Mouth a platform.

Says Bono in his Ten for the Next Ten OpEd >>>

Caution! The only thing protecting the movie and TV industries from the fate that has befallen music and indeed the newspaper business is the size of the files. The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of “24” in 24 seconds. Many will expect to get it free.

A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us — and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business.

We’re the post office, they tell us; who knows what’s in the brown-paper packages? But we know from America’s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content. Perhaps movie moguls will succeed where musicians and their moguls have failed so far, and rally America to defend the most creative economy in the world, where music, film, TV and video games help to account for nearly 4 percent of gross domestic product. Note to self: Don’t get over-rewarded rock stars on this bully pulpit, or famous actors; find the next Cole Porter, if he/she hasn’t already left to write jingles.

“This is the emperor’s new clothes,” said Lefsetz last year, asking, “Didn’t Bono have to submit any samples?  Couldn’t they have rejected this piss-poor piece before they printed it?”

He added:

“I’ve got to believe a ton of ‘Times’ writers are tearing their hair out today.  Their jobs are in jeopardy, but a bunch of ink can be used up by this poser?  It’s like letting a Little Leaguer take swings in a Major League game!

“But you’re sitting there snickering, saying who gives a shit about the ‘New York Times’ anyway.  You’re right.  The ‘New York Times’ is about as prepared for the Net future as the record companies were.  And you know how that played out.  Putting Bono in the paper is like a label head insisting that CDs are great, that the older generation loves them!”

No need to stay tuned.