The paper should do better. But one of the things it tries to do well is language use, and one of the reasons it does it well is that it has people like Corbett working on the problem of what constitutes good writing and usage. Words matter, even if "tweet" is not a good example of why they matter. Corbett and his predecessors have done all kinds of interesting stuff, some of it fun, some educative, but some serious, serious especially when it comes to reporting on war: Do you call this group terrorists, or insurgents, or resistance fighters; do you call that group anti-Israeli, or humanitarian, or pro-Palestinian? We've taken this memo out of its native context and taken it as a sign of some deep problem at NYT in its relation to technology, but "tweet" is a drop in the ocean of language problems that Corbett deals with. Check out some of his public musings here: http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/author/philip-b-corbett/. I see no reason why an institution as important as the New York Times should not do a whole lot better in the ways you suggest, and also continue to try to set some basic standards for writing.
