By Larry Fine
Reuters
June 5, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The resignation of two top New York Times editors is a first step in restoring the newspaper's tarnished reputation, but experts say the Gray Lady's work culture needs an overhaul to overcome the Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal.
Paul Levinson, chairman of the Communication and Media Studies Department at Fordham University, said the exit of Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd showed the Times was taking responsibility for the scandal spawned by former reporter Blair.
"I think it's a very important first step," said Levinson of Thursday's resignations.
"The Times is finally recognizing the problem is not that Jayson Blair destroyed public trust in the Times. It's that Jayson Blair, working within the lax, ineffective, editorial system in the New York Times" damaged its reputation.
Both Raines and Boyd had championed Blair, 27, who rose through newsroom ranks before it was learned he faked dozens of stories over four years at America's most respected newspaper.
The Blair scandal has helped erode public confidence in journalism since its heyday covering the Vietnam war and Watergate. Only 36 percent of people trust the media compared with 54 percent in 1989, a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll said.
Even other news outlets said the incident harmed the profession. Denver's Rocky Mountain News said in a recent editorial that the affair had left "the impression that newsrooms are cozy clubs where reporters can invent sources."
Mike Paul, president of MGP and Associates PR, and an adjunct professor of reputation management at New York University, said the editors' exit was inevitable.
"This was a classic example of thinking that the law or general rules don't apply to me. They found out the hard way that they apply to everybody," he said.
New York magazine media critic Michael Wolff said New York Times Co. Chairman and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. could himself come under scrutiny.
"I think that the focus now becomes on Arthur Sulzberger and in fact I think that's the root of what's happened here. It's all about the survival of the publisher at this point," Wolff said.
"As in any kind of crisis like this you start to push people in front of the traffic. I think Raines and Boyd are taking the fall," he said.
Paul Bhatia, president of ASNE (American Society of Newspaper Editors) and executive editor of the Oregonian newspaper, called the resignations "a tragedy."
"Harold Raines and Gerald Boyd are wonderful human beings and great journalists," he said in a telephone interview from Reston, Virginia, home of ASNE.
"But I don't think there's any denying that something like this hurts a newspaper's credibility," he added.
Alex Jones, co-author of "The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times" and a former Times reporter, said the new top editors must make sure "that the standards and problems and practices that led to Jayson Blair will not happen again."
"They will have to heal the staff and bring it together to go off and charge into journalistic work again," Jones said. "I think that's what the culture of the paper lends itself to. I don't think this will be an enduring wound. But it is something that apparently required new leadership in order to effect."
Staffers spoke with reporters outside the newspaper's office of their general dissatisfaction and their hopes that Raines' departure would end cronyism and bring the Times a new executive editor with a willingness to listen to them.
Bhatia saw a silver lining to the scandal -- an examination of ethics and standards at U.S. newspapers. "It's unfortunate that it takes a big incident to galvanize action industry-wide but nonetheless it's happening and ultimately a good thing if it tightens up practices," he said.
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service
