Posted on 06/06/2003 6:42:24 AM PDT by Valin
If anyone ever needed to measure the dedication of The New York Times's employees to this newspaper, the level of anguish generated by the Jayson Blair incident is a pretty good standard. The discovery that one young reporter had faked or plagiarized a large number of articles drew extensive news coverage, but the publicity outside the paper paled next to the anger and soul-searching within. This week, Howell Raines, the executive editor, and Gerald Boyd, the managing editor, decided that the backwash from the Blair affair was keeping them from providing the effective leadership The Times needs. Yesterday, they resigned.
Mr. Raines had been in charge of the newsroom for less than two years, a period when the paper won eight Pulitzer Prizes. Only days after he became editor, terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, and under his direction the paper provided coverage of the aftermath that marked one of the proudest periods in The Times's 152-year history. Yesterday, when The Times's publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., recounted both men's extraordinary accomplishments over their careers, he said, "This is a day that breaks my heart," and he was not alone.
Before he became executive editor, Mr. Raines was in charge of this page. Under his tenure, and perhaps under the tenure of every Times editorial page editor in history, there were occasions when the editorial board called for a public or corporate official to resign. Sometimes the officials were men and women of distinguished prior achievements, and sometimes the storms that came down on their heads were not primarily of their own making. But a leader's fight to reclaim control of a job gone sour can sap energy away from the institution he or she is trying to lead. The welfare of a great institution is always more important than the careers of the people who run it. Mr. Raines and Mr. Boyd understood that, and that was the reason they chose to leave. Joseph Lelyveld, who retired as executive editor in 2001, has returned for a short period to provide continuity until a new leadership team is appointed.
The good of any particular institution depends on its people, but this one depends equally on the confidence that readers place in it, a confidence based on the belief that every day, the paper struggles mightily to get things right. Journalism is an imperfect business, the work of reporting, understanding and writing about the complexity of human affairs. Like all human enterprises, journalism is not perfectible. But it should always be heading in that direction.
The forced introspection The Times has been going through since the Jayson Blair story surfaced will, in the long run, be healthy. A string of rather spectacular successes might have made us too cocky, too sure that the future would simply bring more of the same. Now, we are re-examining some of our internal rules and structures. The recent weeks have not been particularly enjoyable for those of us on the inside, but even in the moments of greatest internal stress the reporters and editors have done their jobs. That comes from the strength of the institution. Mr. Raines and Mr. Boyd quit to protect that strength, and their sacrifice simply gives the rest of us one more reason to work toward that perpetual goal of the perfect report.
Oh LOOK there's a graveyard! Everyone start whistling.
Eewww!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.