Raines Says He, Boyd Were Asked to Quit
“Former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines, in his first public comments since resigning, said Friday that he had tried to shake up a ‘complacent culture’ at the newspaper, but that the furor over the Jayson Blair scandal had made it impossible for him to continue at the helm,” as the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Raines, who appeared on ‘The Charlie Rose Show,’ also said that he and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd had been asked to step down by Times Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. In earlier statements, Sulzberger said the two had voluntarily offered to resign,” the L.A. Times account says.
The Associated Press reported at the time that “In an e-mail to staffers on Thursday [June 5], Sulzberger Jr. said ‘with great sadness,’ he agreed with the editors? decision to leave.
?’Given the events of the last month, Howell and Gerald concluded that it was best for The Times that they step down.’?
Raines also detailed in the Rose interview how he first learned about the Blair problem, in an e-mail from Boyd:
Raines: I first learned that Jayson Blair had an accuracy problem on April 30th of this year.
Charlie Rose: When there was an e-mail.
Raines: When there was an e-mail from San Antonio. I was on vacation, Gerald Boyd called me said we had a problem. Gerald and [national editor] Jim Roberts began investigating it and did so effectively.
By the 1st of May, we knew we had a big problem. Jayson had resigned rather than tell us the facts of the case. I came back to the paper on May 2nd, a Friday. There was an editor’s group about to start investigating Jayson Blair. I said let’s stop that effort because we know enough now to know that some of the people we have got looking into this problem were — were managing Jayson and no — no inquiry can have credibility if it’s conducted by people who were — who were looking into their own conduct even if it’s honorable conduct.
On that date, May 2nd, I sat down and read Jayson Blair’s personnel file. For the first time [I] saw that his core problem over a five-year period with ups and downs of success and less success had been a pattern of errors. I first saw at that time the memo that said Jayson Blair has got to quit — got to be stopped writing for the paper immediately. That memo was addressed to two mid-level editors, addressed to one and copied to another. It never went anywhere else.