Hard News (37 page)

*45 A year later, when Kramon was being feted after being named to the paper’s masthead, he publicly thanked Harris for helping to buck up his staff.
Return to text.

*46 That afternoon, after writing about Kramon’s meeting with his staff, I received an e-mail on my
Newsweek
account from someone with a Yahoo.com address and the handle “nyt nyt.” It read, “When are you going to disclose to your readers (or perhaps your editors) that you begged and pleaded Howell Raines for a job? He didn’t give you one. . . . And you’re a media ‘watchdog’? I don’t think so. Can’t wait to see the editor’s note.” In late 2001, after my employer,
Brill’s Content,
closed down, I had sent in a cover letter and clips to the
Times
and more than a dozen other newspapers and magazines. I never had a conversation with Howell Raines.
Return to text.

*47 In July 2004, Laura Chang was named the
Times
’s permanent science editor.
Return to text.

*48 Miller did not respond to e-mails or phone calls asking for comment for this book.
Return to text.

*49 Privately, some top editors at the
Times
acknowledged one reason they had avoided examining Miller’s work even after realizing it was flawed was a desire to avoid the kind of flagellation that occurred after the paper’s Blair report.
Return to text.

*50 In his 2004
Atlantic
piece, Raines compared the relationship between an executive editor and a publisher to a marriage and described how, when making his sales pitch to Sulzberger to run the paper, he sipped white wine while letting Sulzberger drink a martini, waiting for him to “mellow enough to listen to something he might not want to hear.”
Return to text.

*51 There is a long history of
Times
publishers portraying their administrations as more business minded than those of their predecessors. In 1951, Punch Sulzberger’s father, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, described his tenure as a transition from the “paternalistic management” of Adolph Ochs. “It became my task to build a machine, to make an institution,” he said.
Return to text.

*52 In the October 2003 issue of
Details,
Raines wrote a piece about his son Jeff, a guitarist in the band Galactic.
Return to text.

*53 In May 2004, New Millennium was liquidated and its back catalog was sold at auction.
Return to text.

*54 Boyd is currently writing a memoir for Amistad/HarperCollins, writes a regular column for the United Press Syndicate, and is the director of the case study program at Columbia University’s School of Journalism.
Return to text.

*55 In his proposal, Raines continued to make factual errors that elevated his own importance to the
Times.
The
Times,
Raines wrote, only won the top Pulitzer—the prize for “public service”—three times in a century. Two of those, he wrote, were for work published “in the 20 [
sic
] months I served as executive editor.” In fact, the
Times
has won five public service awards since the award was instituted in 1917—in 1918, 1944, 1972, 2002, and 2004.
Return to text.

A Note on Sources

This is how Janet Malcolm began her classic book
The Journalist and the Murderer:
“Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness. . . .” It’s a famous line in the industry, and one I’ve always found to ring false; writing about the media—and specifically about
The New York Times
—crystallized what has always seemed so wrong to me about Malcolm’s formulation. Malcolm’s thesis grew out of her work on a specific case—the author Joe McGinniss’s fawning subject-author relationship with an accused (and later convicted) murderer named Jeffrey MacDonald, a relationship that soured when McGinniss wrote a damning bestseller about MacDonald and his trial. Like most of her writing, Malcolm’s work on MacDonald began as a “one off,” a long-form piece for
The New Yorker
in which she immersed herself in the life of her subject over a period of several months and then walked away when her piece was finished, “never to see [him] again.”

The majority of journalists—journalists working beats, journalists who write for daily newspapers, journalists who need to return to the same carefully nurtured sources day after day—don’t have the luxury of working a con. White House reporters who have a mile-long trail of bylines following them to each news conference and interview would be foolish to try to pretend they’re doing anything but angling for a juicy scoop. For a reporter on the media beat, this is doubly true. Other journalists know the tricks of the trade. They also understand that tension and conflict make for compelling stories. In this case, if the subject is convinced that the upcoming profile is going to be wholly flattering, he’s the one who is either stupid or full of himself.

For this and many other reasons, writing about
The New York Times
is a unique challenge. The journalists at the paper are naturally wary of being the subjects of another writer’s reportage, a wariness made more acute by the intense scrutiny that has long been focused on the
Times.
What’s more, writing about people in the industry (as opposed to “civilians,” as journos often refer to that segment of the world that doesn’t make its living humping deadlines and buttonholing interview subjects) means, inevitably, writing about your peers, your once and future colleagues, and sometimes even your friends. It’s a tricky, and often uncomfortable, dance.

—————

T
HIS BOOK IS THE RESULT
of more than a hundred interviews, many of which were with current or former employees of
The New York Times.
I’m grateful to them for the candor, time, and trust they extended to me. Virtually the entire current editorial team leading the
Times
agreed to talk to me despite the fact that they knew the result was likely to be painful for them and for some of their colleagues and friends. This was not, as Malcolm would have it, because these journalists were vain, ignorant, or lonely, but rather because of their belief that an accurately reported story is, in itself, worthwhile. More than one editor at the
Times
told me to “write a good book,” by which they meant: Write a fair, accurate, and lasting document of a difficult but fascinating time in the paper’s history.

A couple of style points: A quote that was obtained through an interview conducted exclusively for this book is accompanied by a present-tense verb—“says,” “remarks,” “remembers,” “recalls.” If it’s in the past tense, then the quote is either from my previous reporting—for
Newsweek, New York
magazine, or Inside.com—or from outside sources. There are a few exceptions, all of which are indicated in the source notes.

A number of people chose not to speak with me for this project, including Howell Raines, Gerald Boyd, Joe Lelyveld, Max Frankel, and A. M. Rosenthal. Anytime I describe a scene or situation involving one of those men, I’m doing so on the basis of reporting from other sources. For the most part, the specifics of this are explained in the source notes as well, although occasionally you’ll find a scene or reminiscence attributed solely to a mysterious “author interview,” which is the book version of an anonymous source. I sought multiple sources of confirmation before describing a scene involving any of these former editors—and especially when I dealt with Raines and Boyd. I sent both Raines and Boyd many letters and e-mails over the course of reporting and writing this book, and I also left them phone messages and relayed messages through friends and colleagues. Neither responded.

I also want to make clear that while I did interview Arthur Sulzberger Jr. for this project, our conversations were limited to the
Times
’s business plan and strategies. He did not want to talk about the events of 2003 or his relationship with Howell Raines. As with scenes involving Raines and Boyd, the information used to portray any scene involving Arthur Sulzberger was obtained through other sources.

Finally, given the dozens of off-the-record and background interviews I conducted for this book, I chose not to include as part of the bibliography a list of people interviewed. In cases where I interviewed people on the record and used their quotes, I have included their names in the source notes.

Source Notes

Introduction

The first newspaper printed in America
Frank Luther Mott.
American Journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States Through 250 Years, 1690–1940.
New York: Routledge, 2000. pp. 43–58.

Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst
David Nasaw.
The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. pp. 104–6.

Hearst, in his inimitable way
Ibid., pp. 125–30.

in 2004 it thoroughly dominated
“The Pulitzer Board Presents the Pulitzer Prize Winners 2004.” Available at
www.pulitzer.org/cgi-bin/year.pl?1912,25
.

A 2004 Project for Excellence
The Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The State of the News Media 2004.
Available at
www.stateofthemedia.org
.

declined an opportunity to invest
Arthur Sulzberger. Speech to the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. Harvard University. Cambridge, Mass. November 20, 2000.

Hearst Corporation, by contrast
“Hearst Timeline.” Available at the Hearst Corporation’s website,
www.hearstcorp.com/about
.

almost half the paper’s daily circulation
Janet Robinson to author.

“platform agnostic”
Arthur Sulzberger. Speech to the German Newspaper Publishers Association. Berlin, Germany. September 30, 2003.

“TV, the Internet, all of that is”
Sulzberger to author.

Some Wall Street analysts
Author interviews.

the Tribune Company, which today owns
Available at the Tribune Company corporate website,
www.tribune.com
.

Abuzz.com
David Simons, “The NY Times Guarantees VC Investment.” Available at
www.forbes.com/2000/05/03/mu10.htm
. May 3, 2000.

Discovery Times Channel
“The New York Times in Television: About Us.” Available at the New York Times Company corporate website,
www.nytco.com/subsites/nyttv/about.htm
.

International Herald Tribune Jack Shafer. “Art Dumps Don: The
Times
Moves the
Post
out of Their Paris Flat.” Available at
www.slate.com/id/2073060
. October 23, 2002.

What’s more, the Graham family
Author interviews.

He found Howell Raines
The New York Times Company corporate website,
www.nytco.com/company-executives-hraines.htm?searchpv=nytco
.

approximately one thousand editorial employees
Author interviews.

“Howell seemed to think”
Haberman to author.

According to one recent study
The Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The State of the News Media 2004.

Times
policy dictated
Ken Auletta. “Opening Up The Times.”
The New Yorker
. June 28, 1993.

“You know the old slogan”
Roy Rivenburg. “All the Jokes Fit to Tell.”
Los Angeles Times
. May 17, 2003. Section 5, p. 1.

May 2004 episode of
The Simpsons Robert Levine. “The Season Finale That Isn’t a Season Finale.”
The New York Times
. May 23, 2004. Section 2, p. 17.

Part One

BEFORE

April 8, 2002

third-floor newsroom
Author interviews.

Max Frankel, the retired executive editor
Auletta, “Opening Up The Times.”

“necessary proof of the world’s existence”
Gay Talese.
The Kingdom and the Power
. New York: World Publishing, 1969. p. 72.

a space was cleared in front
Ken Auletta. “The Howell Doctrine.”
The New Yorker
. June 10, 2002. Available at
www.kenauletta.com/howelldoctrine.htm
.

about to win seven Pulitzer Prizes
The Pulitzer Prizes. See
www.pulitzer.org/cgi-bin/year.pl?1867,33
.

For the first time
Auletta, “The Howell Doctrine.”

“the not-Abe”
Max Frankel.
The Times of My Life and My Life with
The Times. New York: Random House, 1999. p. 428.

“A man deserves his own”
Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones.
The Trust.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1999. p. 558.

“I was reminded today”
Auletta, “The Howell Doctrine.”

“We are ever mindful”
Diego Ibarguen. “N.Y. Times Wins Record 7 Pulitzers.” Associated Press. April 8, 2002.

“will be studied and taught”
Shelley Emling and Caroline Wilbert. “Times Scandal Tests Editor’s Leadership.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
June 1, 2003.

Raines later told Ken Auletta
Auletta, “The Howell Doctrine.”

“Howell mentioned a lot of folks”
Ibid.

The Sulzberger Family

founded in 1851
Tifft and Jones,
The Trust
, p. 31.

modern incarnation of the
Times Ibid., p. 38.

Today, the New York Times Company
SEC filings, Annual Report, the New York Times Company. February 20, 2004.

market capitalization
Per quote.yahoo.com. Ticker symbol NYT, as of May 26, 2004.

“They’re a monarchy” The Charlie Rose Show.
“The American Scene.” Interview with Max Frankel. PBS. Air date, April 14, 1994.

“Great newspapers and great families”
Harold Evans. “Beyond the Scoop.”
The New Yorker
. July 8, 1996.

“We don’t have trust in government”
Tifft and Jones,
The Trust
, p. 774.

last of four children
Ibid., p. x.

“profit be considered desirable”
Ibid., p. 468.

New York Times Class A stock
Ibid., p. 470.

creating a structure whereby
Ibid., p. 469.

“God
[
was
]
our personnel manager”
Ibid., p. 471.

“We didn’t have a planning process”
Ibid., p. 470.

predetermined budget
Ibid., p. 384.

stock dropped
Ibid., p. 471.

The fortuitously timed 1971 acquisition
Ibid., p. 472.

“My father, Walter Mattson, Abe Rosenthal”
Sulzberger to author.

“Instead of putting more water”
Clyde Haberman. “Sulzberger Passes Leadership of Times Co. to Son.”
The New York Times
. October 17, 1997. p. A1.

managing editor Turner Catledge
Tifft and Jones,
The Trust
, p. 384.

“Unpretentiousness is his greatest gift”
Haberman, “Sulzberger Passes Leadership of Times.”

authorized the
Times
’s publication
Tifft and Jones,
The Trust
, p. 487.

Lord, Day & Lord
Ibid., p. 490.

“Make a great paper even greater”
Frankel,
The Times of My Life
, p. 415.

“It was . . . a vehicle”
Tifft and Jones,
The Trust
, p. 606.

In late 1991
Ibid., p. 720.

Craig Aronoff, the head
Ibid., pp. 722–23.

withstood a challenge from Lance Primis
Ibid., p. 752.

“If you think I’m sitting”
Haberman, “Sulzberger Passes Leadership of Times.”

Sulzberger hired Russ Lewis
Ibid.

Joseph Lelyveld, the paper’s executive editor
Ibid.

“There are four things”
Ibid.

“The most important partnership”
Ibid.

“This place doesn’t run”
Lewis to author.

“His action”
Haberman, “Sulzberger Passes Leadership of Times.”

The Prince

when Prince Charles visited
Tifft and Jones,
The Trust
, p. 615.

Sulzberger visited Harvard
Arthur Sulzberger speech. November 20, 2000.

Alex Jones, who, in addition
“Alex S. Jones Named New Director of the Shorenstein Center.”
Harvard University Gazette
. April 20, 2000.

“I’ll outlive the bastards!”
Auletta, “Opening Up The Times.”

“We think she is smarter”
Tifft and Jones,
The Trust
, pp. 554–55.

series of management seminars
Auletta, “Opening Up The Times.”

“Sulzberger . . . is impatient”
Ibid.

“Some would argue”
Ibid.

promote the fifty-seven-year-old
Robert D. McFadden. “Lelyveld Will Succeed Frankel as The Times’s Executive Editor.”
The New York Times
. April 8, 1994. p. A1.

interview with Charlie Rose The Charlie Rose Show,
April 14, 1994.