Bill Keller Named Editor of N.Y. Times
Bill Keller has been named executive editor of The New York Times effective July 30, assuming the responsibilities held by interim executive editor Joseph Lelyveld, the New York Times Co. announced today. Keller is an op-ed columnist and senior writer for The New York Times Magazine, and was a candidate for the job when Howell Raines was chosen in 2001.
No managing editor was named to replace Gerald R. Boyd, who was the Times’ first African American in the job. The highest-ranking person of color now is Kathleen McElroy, an associate managing editor who is African American, but she has not been mentioned as a candidate.
Today’s announcement said that, “In the coming weeks, Mr. Keller plans to evaluate the organization of the newsroom’s top management and name additional members of the team that will lead The Times.”
In the current issue of the New York Observer, writer Sridhar Pappu discusses Keller and diversity issues, saygin:
“In his most recent op-ed, entitled ‘Mr. Diversity,’ about the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action at the University of Michigan, he wrote like someone ready to take the helm and make clear his stand on what had become a central issue in the aftermath of the Jayson Blair episode: race and The Times.
“‘My own views on this subject are not entirely theoretical,’ Mr. Keller wrote. ‘I’m a trustee of a liberal-arts college that tries to attract black and Latino scholars using a standard much like the one at the Michigan Law School. I also work for a newspaper that makes an effort to hire and promote talented minority journalists. The paper does this not for the sake of doing good (for that it has a charitable foundation) nor to defend a principle (for that it has an editorial page), but mainly because we can better comprehend a disparate world and explain it to a disparate audience if our reporting and editing staff does not consist entirely of Ivy League white guys.’
“While not an earth-rattling defense of affirmative action, Mr. Keller’s words struck a chord with many at The Times because it was less aligned with the Howellian view of affirmative action — as a method of righting the past wrongs of Birmingham and Jackson and Atlanta — than with that of Mr. Sulzberger, who’s held up diversity as an effective management policy.”
Keller, 54, became op-ed columnist and senior writer for the Times magazine in 2001. He was managing editor from 1997 to 2001 after having been the newspaper’s foreign editor from 1995 to 1997. He was the chief of The Times bureau in Johannesburg from 1992 until 1995, according to the Times release.
“Bill was a close contender for this job last time around,” Sulzberger said in a memo to the staff. “He’s enjoyed his role over the last two years and has gained some valuable perspective during that time. He’s excited to be coming back to the newsroom and eager to take on new challenges and build on our successes. So are we all.”
Raines Says He, Boyd Were Asked to Quit (July 12)
Lynette Holloway Gets “Corrective Article” in Times
A New York Times story by Lynette Holloway a week ago on a loan dispute between Prudential Securities and TVT Records, one of the nation’s largest independent record companies, is the subject today of an 188-word editors’note and 2,175-word story by Diana B. Henriques that amounts to a correction.
“An article in Business Day last Monday about Steven Gottlieb, founder and president of TVT Records, discussed his involvement in a number of lawsuits and assessed the financial status of his company,” the editors’ note begins. “The article’s main premises — that Mr. Gottlieb had lost control of his company and had a reputation for being litigious — were based on fundamental misunderstandings of the subject, scope and status of the legal proceedings discussed.”
“Gottlieb was surprised that so many errors were made in the story, according to his Los Angeles-based attorney Edward Lazarus, since Gottlieb had been interviewed by Holloway for the article,” Editor & Publisher reports. “The attorney said his office sent a four-page letter to the Times on Wednesday after reviewing the story, which offered a point-by point response to the erroneous reporting and asked for a correction.”
Holloway’s story is further attacked in an article by Roger Friedman on the Fox News Web site.
Holloway referred questions from Journal-isms to Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis, who E&P reported would say only that “this is not a person who has a history of errors.” “Holloway declined to comment on the issue or the correction, but said she had not been punished in any way,” said E&P. While Holloway is African American, her race has so far not been made an issue.
Fabricator Glass Gets Rolling Stone Assignment
“Stephen Glass is returning to the scene of one of his many crimes: Rolling Stone,” reports the “Intelligencer” column in New York magazine, speaking of the white writer whose fortunes are often contrasted with writers of color who were also disgraced.
“Glass has been assigned to write a piece for the magazine about the changes in Canada’s marijuana laws. Staffers at the mag are baffled that Jann Wenner is welcoming Glass back after he landed the mag in court.
“Rolling Stone was sued by D.A.R.E. America for defamation after it published an article Glass wrote that included fabrications that were critical of the anti-drug group. Wenner lawyers got the case dismissed by arguing that Rolling Stone was not responsible for Glass’s wrongdoing because as a freelancer he was an independent contractor, not an employee. A Wenner rep defended the mag’s flip-f[l]op. ‘He’s a good reporter,’ the rep said (without even the slightest giggle). ‘We thought he would be the perfect person to do the story.'”
Rich Luna Steps Down as Indy Star ME
The Indianapolis Star reports today that its managing editor, Richard Luna, has left the newspaper “to pursue other opportunities within Gannett and elsewhere,” quoting editor Dennis Ryerson.
Luna, a five-year board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists who lost a bid in 2002 for re-election, was the No. 2 editor in the newsroom for about a year.
“Dennis Ryerson, editor and vice president of The Star, said he soon would begin a nationwide search for a replacement,” the story said.
“Luna came to The Star from the Statesman Journal of Salem, Ore., where he also worked as managing editor.
“The Statesman Journal and The Star are both owned by the Gannett Co.”
New Round of Job Changes and Honors
- Sewell Chan, reporter at the Washington Post, is one of eight recipients of a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism, presented by the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program. Chan “plans to examine the District of Columbia’s efforts to build a stronger, community-based system of care for children with mental illnesses, and research similar children’s services in at least one other urban mental health system.”
- Sidmel Estes-Sumpter, executive producer of “Good Day Atlanta” and “Fox5 News” in that city, has been named a recipient of a 2003 Silver Circle Award, presented by the National Television Academy?s Southeastern Chapter. The award honors professionals who have dedicated at least 25 years of their careers to television and made significant contributions in the Southern regional market.
- Genevieve Marlin-Fernandez, deputy managing editor of People en Español, has been named managing editor of Reader’s Digest Selecciones magazine, according to Pareja Media Match.
- Alison Stewart, formerly a news correspondent for ABC “World News Now,” CBS News’ “Sunday Morning,” and MTV, has been named an on-air afternoon host at New York’s WNEW-FM (102.7), the Record of Hackensack, N.J., reports.
Man Accused of Cyberstalking Chicago Anchor
For more than a year, news anchor Tamron Hall of Chicago’s Fox station, WFLD-TV, “has been bombarded with e-mails, phone messages and letters from an Indiana fan who urged her to marry him, sent her sexually explicit messages, then became angry when she did not respond, police and other sources say,” reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
“On Friday, Tonny Horne of South Bend, Ind., was indicted for cyberstalking Hall and trespassing on Fox property. ‘He wanted her for his wife; he said that she did talk to him through the TV,’ a source said. Relatives say Horne has a history of mental illness.”
Reggie Hudlin in on “Boondocks” Film Deal
Reginald Hudlin, writer and producer of the animated feature “Bebe’s Kids” (1992), and director of the movies “House Party” (1990), “Boomerang” (1992), and “Serving Sara” (2002), is a partner of “Boondocks” creator Aaron McGruder in his deal with Sony to develop TV and feature projects based on McGruder’s comic strip, according to Variety.com.
“McGruder and Hudlin have been charged with writing a pilot script and hammering out an animated feature treatment,” the story says.
“McGruder and Hudlin have been shopping for a TV and feature home for ‘The Boondocks’ even before the comic debuted in April 1999.
“‘I got a really good vibe from [Sony],’ McGruder said. “I got the sense they understood and respected the strip for what it was, and they were interested in making the best projects they could. ‘Boondocks’ is not your standard commercial fare, but they appreciated what it was about.”
How to Get Sources to Go on the Record
Los Angeles Times media writer David Shaw, noting the increased impatience by the public and by some editors over the use of anonymous sources, shares his technique for getting sources to go on the record:
“When a source asks me if we can ‘go off the record’ — by which most people mean they don’t want their names used — I try to persuade him to stay on the record. If that fails, I agree, then conduct the interview, try to figure out before finishing what he’s said that’s likely to be useful to me and conclude the interview by saying something like:
“‘Gee, why would you object to having your name on that quote?’
“I explain why quoting him would not hurt him. I might even point out how insightful or constructive the quote is and why it’s important that both it and his name be published. More often that not — and as recently as last month, in fact — my source has said, ‘OK, sure.’ Or he’s asked if he could modify a word or two before agreeing.
“If this approach seems unlikely to work, I usually respond to a source’s request for anonymity by saying something like, ‘OK. But on one condition. When I’m done writing this, if your quote and your name seem really important, I’ll call you and read you your quote — and the paragraphs before and after your quotes, so you’ll see the context — and I’ll explain why it’s important that I use your name.
“‘It will be your decision,’ I say. ‘If you say no, I promise to take your name and your quotes out. But you have to promise that you’ll take my call and that you’ll listen to my arguments.’
“Many journalists have told me they would never read a quote back to a source under any circumstances, for fear he would either deny having said it or ask that his name not be used or that the quote be dropped or watered down.
“But in using this approach for more than 25 years. I’ve never had a single source refuse my deal and — more important — only once has a source insisted her name not be used when I called back for what I came to think of as my recitation-and-persuasion sonata.
“On one other occasion, when I called back a source, he said we could use his name and his quote only if I would agree to eliminate four of the five pejorative phrases he’d used to describe a rival. I said, ‘Why don’t you pick the one pejorative that makes you the most uncomfortable and I’ll take it out and use the other four.” We compromised on three pejoratives in, two out — with ellipses — and that more than made his and my point. The quote ran, with his name attached.
“That’s the sum of my ‘problems’ with this approach over all these years.”