RAINES REAMS NYT EX-COLLEAGUES, NEWS CULTURE AT GRAY LADY ("Pinch" likened to Wile E. Coyote)

NY POST ^ | March 25, 2004 | KEITH J. KELLY

[Liz]

Former New York Times executive editor Howell Raines has unleashed a blistering criticism of the paper where he worked for 25 years and of the onetime friend who ultimately fired him, publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. "I felt on the day I became executive editor and on the day I drove away from West Forty-Third Street for the last time that the Times badly needs to raise the level of its journalism, and to do so quickly in order to survive and make the full transition to the digital age," Raines writes in the May issue of The Atlantic Monthly - his first public comments since the days following his ouster last year.

[Liz]

"Pinch" comes off as the bad seed, an aberration in "Punch" Sulzberger's gene pool. The Little Prince screwed-up bigtime.

[Liz]

Howell Raines spills his guts.

[Bahbah]

"the Times badly needs to raise the level of its journalism...."

I must say I agree with old Howell on this one. I wonder if we are thinking of the same ways to raise the level.

[an amused spectator]

Media Schadenfreude ping - Raines Rains Mainly On The Pinch

On, Off, or grab it for a Media Shenanigans/Schadenfreude ping:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~anamusedspectator/

[Liz]

I wonder if we are thinking of the same ways to raise the level.

I doubt it.

[FreedomFarmer]

...the Times badly needs to raise the level of its journalism...

It has been my experience that adding water to a stagnant pond only churns up the scum, and makes the slime more treacherous.

[Liz]

The Sulzberger DNA needs recodimg.

[Nick Danger]

"Nowadays, I think of Jayson Blair as an accident that ended my newspaper career in the same unpredictable way that a heart attack or a plane crash might have," writes Raines.

Only partly true. It was an accident in the same way that having a heart attack after 30 years of smoking three packs a day and eating nothing but eggs benedict for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is an accident.

Jayson Blair had been emitting smoke for a long time before he burst into flames. Raines was, to use his own favorite word, "complacent" about it.

The fact that Raines was also on a mission to turn America's Foremost Leftist Newspaper into the American Left's Foremost Newspaper should have had even more to do with it, but it appears that Sulzberger was in full agreement with that part. Damn them both, as far as I'm concerned.

[Liz]

Blair on Fox News said he was working in an "amoral culture" at the NYT. Probably the only thing the little creep said that was true,

[NonValueAdded]

"...that the Times badly needs to raise the level of its journalism, and to do so quickly in order to survive and make the full transition to the digital age"

Does that roughly translate into "they can now know when we are lying"?

[Liz]

It's gruesome, but I think you got the (gag) liberal rant down pat.

[Enduring Freedom]

"The difference between Punch and Arthur is the difference between the Marine Corps, where Punch had his formative experience, and Outward Bound, where Arthur had his," Raines writes. Both experiences teach you how to get to the top of the mountain, he notes, "but Arthur wants it to be touchy feely along the way."

BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Who knew the Old Gray Lady was an MTV Goth?!

[backhoe]

Cross-link:

-The Old Grey Info-Slut... the NYT/Jayson Blair Affair--

[Liz]

I'll just bet Pinch is really, really "tolerant and compassionate," too (gag).

[ladyinred]

I must say I agree with old Howell on this one. I wonder if we are thinking of the same ways to raise the level.

I doubt it, wish he were, then perhaps he would really spill the beans! This it ain't news until we say it is news is beyond arrogant, especially when you know their agenda!

[AnnaZ]

Raines states in the Atlantic essay that he strove in his two-year run at the top to shake up a culture of "mañana journalism" and to dispel what he called the "dangerously outmoded Times maxim, 'It's not news until we say it's news.'

Yup, they done lost that crown.

[Bahbah]

"I doubt it, wish he were"

I hope fellow FReepers could hear the dripping sarcasm. I don't know the tag line for that.

[Congressman Billybob]

He may be "splilling his guts," but he is also demonstrating that he still doesn't have a clue. Jayson Blair wasn't an accident that happened on his watch, like a heart attack. He was more like an auto accident that happened because Raines was dead brunk behind the wheel of the Times when that happened.

This journalistic clown is trying to pretend he made no mistakes and push the blame off on others. Sounds sorta like Clarke, doesn't he?

The basic problem with the Times when Raines took the reins was not that it needed to be modernized. It was that it had trashed its own reputation for integrity. Since Raines had no clue about the basic problem, he was congenitally incapable of correcting the problem. IMHO.

Congressman Billybob

Click here, then click the blue CFR button, to join the anti-CFR effort (or visit the "Hugh & Series, Critical & Pulled by JimRob" thread). Please do it now.

[Liz]

More like, "If the NYT says it's news, I, for one, am not convinced."

[Liz]

A (gag) liberal's typical "It's not my fault" defense.