WEB EXCLUSIVE: Fired New York Times editor tells all

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Full story available at http://www.rawstory.com

Fired New York Times editor tells all

Raines slams culture of 'complaint;' Apologizes for moving too fast

By John Byrne
RAW STORY EDITOR

Former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines, who resigned in the wake of the Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal, has written a 23-page confessional in the month's edition of the Atlantic.

Raines, who had a 25-year run with the Times, took the helm Sept. 5, 2001, just six days before Sept. 11. His tenure as editor, which was pockmarked with accusations that he was too aggressive, ended abruptly after the paper published a four-page spread on the reportorial falsifications of staff writer Jayson Blair.

In his extensive piece, Raines reconstructs his long career with the paper, detailing his relationships with previous editors and explaining his attempts to control what he called the paper's "culture of complaint." He describes a newspaper riven by a divide of effort, where many of the paper's journalists slip into an apathy which undermines the Times' ability to stay ahead of the news.

"At the Times," he writers, "as at Harvard, it is hard to get in and almost impossible to flunk out."

Notably absent from the article is details surrounding the Blair case itself; Raines makes mention of Blair's case only towards the end of the piece. Most of his time is spent breaking down what he sees as the nearly intractable problems with the Times newsroom.

Raines slams the Times' powerful writer's guild, which, he says, encourages a climate of indifference within the paper.

"On a newsroom floor with 1,200 employees and an even larger, militantly pro-Guild support staff, where the company is the daddy and the union is the mommy, no one is supposed to speak publicly about the attitudes of entitlement and smug complacency that pervade the paper."

"Clubabble underachievers," he adds, "are usually given sinecures rather than encouraged to leave."

He calls attention to what he sees as one of the paper's biggest challenges — to eradicate the idea that the Times can afford to be lazy in covering breaking stories because its eventual article will be better.

To survive, he argues, the Times must shed its "Victorian affectation" and "New York parochialism, to eschew a "glide path towards irrelevance."

[rawstory]

1. Article

This is actually a really interesting article; I'd recommend picking up the latest Atlantic.

[madfloridian]

2. Salon.....Burning down his master's house

http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2004/03/25/nyt/index.html

SNIP..."Former New York Times editor Howell Raines uses the Atlantic Monthly to savage his old newsroom for lethargy, sloppiness and "a culture of complaint."

SNIP...."March 25, 2004 | Nearly a year after resigning from the New York Times in the wake of the Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal, former executive editor Howell Raines delivers his side of the story in a new article for the Atlantic Monthly magazine. But it's not Blair whom Raines has in his sights. It's his old newsroom.

In a lengthy piece set for the May issue but released to reporters Wednesday, Raines at times butchers the newspaper he spent nearly his entire adult life working for. Assailing what he saw as the paper's slow-footed approach to covering the news and reluctance to seriously explore pop culture, Raines probably says nothing his former underlings didn't hear while he ran the newspaper. But for Raines to make his criticism so publicly, and for his jabs to be so sharp against his predecessor, Joseph Lelyveld, and indirectly against his own successor, Bill Keller, is sure to set off yet another round of Raines-bashing inside the West 43rd Street newsroom....."END SNIP

I keep remembering that Jayson Blair went to Bob Jones University. Then I wonder why that makes me wonder what he was about.

[rawstory]

3. ???

Did he REALLY go to Bob Jones university??!

[madfloridian]

4. Edit: Can't find a thing now. I know it was discussed.

There was a lot of talk on forums about it then. I don't think he graduated from anywhere. So, though it was discussed, I can't find it.????