Hard News (45 page)

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The Wall Street Journal.
December 13, 1993. p. A5.

Shipnuck, Alan.
The Battle for Augusta National: Hootie, Martha, and the Masters of the Universe.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

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.

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.

Snyder, Gabriel. “Raines Succeeds Lelyveld at Times.”
The New York Observer.
May 28, 2001. pp. 1, 6.

———. “Phony Slave Tales Causes Big Whup at Times Magazine.”
The New York Observer.
March 4, 2002. p. 1.

Soriano, Cesar G. “Blair Signs Book Deal.”
USA Today.
September 11, 2003. p. D2.

Stanley, Alessandra, and Bill Carter. “CBS Staying Silent in Debate on Women Joining Augusta.”
The New York Times.
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Starobin, Paul. “Raines’s Reign: Thunder from the Times.”
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“Statement from Editor and Publisher.”
USA Today.
January 16, 2004. p. 3A.

Steinberg, Jacques. “Times Reporter Resigns After Questions on Article.”
The New York Times.
May 2, 2003. p. A30.

———. “Editor of Times Tells Staff He Accepts Blame for Fraud.”
The New York Times.
May 15, 2003. p. A31.

———. “Times’s 2 Top Editors Resign After Furor on Writer’s Fraud.”
The New York Times.
June 6, 2003. p. A1.

———. “Bill Keller, Columnist, Is Selected as The Times’s Executive Editor.”
The New York Times.
July 15, 2003. p. A1.

———. “2 Are Appointed at The Times to Managing Editor Positions.”
The New York Times.
August 1, 2003. p. A18.

———. “Times Names First Editor for Standards.”
The New York Times.
September 10, 2003. p. A20.

———. “The Times Chooses Veteran of Magazines and Publishing as Its First Public Editor.”
The New York Times.
October 27, 2003. p. A19.

———. “The Media Business.”
The New York Times.
January 14, 2004. p. C4.

———. “A Question of Credibility.”
The New York Times.
January 19, 2004. p. C1.

———. “Newspaper Circulation Continues Overall Decline.”
The New York Times.
May 4, 2004. p. C4.

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———. “Keller Won the Job, but Lost a Bet: New ‘NY Times’ Editor Outlines His Vision for Paper.” Editorandpublisher.com Web exclusive. July 15, 2003.

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———. “Good Times Again for Sportswriter.”
New York Post.
December 6, 2002. p. 2.

———. “Times to Take a Mulligan.”
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———. “Raines’ Hard Fall.”
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.

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———. Speech to the New York Public Library. New York, N.Y. January 10, 2002.

———. Speech to the German Newspaper Publishers Association. Berlin, Germany. September 30, 2003.

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March 11, 2004. p. E7.

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The New York Times.
April 29, 2004. p. A23.

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The New York Times.
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The New York Times.
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The New York Times.
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The New York Times.
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New York Post.
December 6, 2002. p. 128.

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May 9, 2003.

———. “Repeat Performance.”
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May 2, 2003.

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New York Post.
May 21, 2003. p. 10.

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The Denver Post.
May 11, 2003. p. A10.

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Acknowledgments

Four years ago, I had the good fortune of working with Hanya Yanagihara when she was an editor at
Brill’s Content.
Since then, she has been my friend, confidante, and supporter. Most recently, she’s been a passionate, dedicated, and enormously skilled editor for this book. Hanya put up with too frequent midnight phone calls and remained enthusiastic and cheerful during the many times I had to be convinced not to scrap the entire project and start anew. She helped on every level, and on every level she made this book better. Without Hanya, this book would likely not have been finished.

There are many other people who also vastly improved my work. My mother, Wendy Mnookin, one of the country’s best poets (
What He Took
is a good place to start), read my manuscript and provided a much-needed combination of motherly encouragement, visceral hatred of split infinitives and sentences begun with conjunctions, and homemade brownies. My father, Jim Mnookin, was also a careful reader and loving cheerleader.

Had Simon Dumenco, a wonderful friend and a brilliant writer, simply taken the time to read my manuscript, it would have been a blessing; he was, after all, editing a magazine, writing a column, and finishing a book of his own. He also provided me with one of the best edits I have ever received, and with only hours to go before my manuscript was due. Fotini Christia also was a dedicated reader, critic, and friend.

This book grew out of work I did while a writer at
Newsweek.
I was extremely lucky to have the guidance of a wonderful editor, Tom Watson, who worked tirelessly to improve my copy. (The
Times,
Tom, they are a-changin’.) Mark Whitaker and Jon Meacham had faith in my work, and their encouragement meant a lot to this young reporter. Suzanne Smalley, Rebecca Sinderbrand, Martha Brant, Holly Bailey, Pat Wingert, and Brian Braiker provided invaluable reporting assistance for my article “The
Times
Bomb,” driving through Maryland subdivisions, haranguing landlords and bartenders, and waiting outside the Times building on the off chance some news happened to break. Susan Szeliga helped with research before, during, and after my
Newsweek
cover package on Jayson Blair.

Caroline and Helmut Weymar offered me my very own Lake Como on the Atlantic in the form of a monthlong stay at “78” on Nantucket. It remains the most wonderful month of this entire process, both because of the mental space my time there afforded me and because of their cherished company and encouragement.

When I returned from Nantucket and was faced with the overwhelming prospect of having to actually write a book, the Shorenstein Center’s Alex Jones offered me refuge at Harvard. I’d already looked to Alex for inspiration in the form of the book he co-wrote with Susan Tifft,
The Trust.
Having a haven overseen by Alex and Edie Holway was a true blessing.

Over the nine months I worked full-time on this book, I was lucky to have the help of many astute researchers. Meredith Sadin provided excellent (if occasionally comical) transcription and archival assistance. At Harvard, Shashank Bengali prepared succinct crash courses in the history of American journalism, and Philip Tinari pored over Nexis printouts and newspaper archives to track down whatever specific example I was convinced I needed that minute. My neighbor in Quincy House, Irin Carmon, was a tireless and much-appreciated fact-checker, bibliographer, dining hall partner, and friend. Amit Paley, Jacob Russell, and Michelle Chun also helped with the final heave.

During my months at the Shorenstein Center, I allowed myself one distraction: the Boston Red Sox (and the Sons of Sam Horn). I made it to eleven games before I returned to New York in the middle of June, and the Sox’s record was 10–1 when I was in attendance. Since the Sox are so sabermetrically inclined, that offers irrefutable proof that the cure to the team’s woes is to give me season tickets. And to send me on the road. (Hear that, Theo?) A wise friend once said if you want to do excellent work, you should watch excellence. For that I thank G38, Petey, Manny, Tek, Tizzle, Caveman, and that awe-inspiring grab by Pokey with two on and two out in the top of the seventh on June 13 versus the Dodgers. Thanks, too, to Jose Melendez and his keys to the game.

My two mentors in publishing, Marysue Rucci and Geoff Kloske, have been patient and helpful for years and have always offered advice and reassurance whenever I’ve needed it. Kurt Andersen has been a personal Yoda; he sagely told me the only reason not to write this book was a fear of failure—and that that was the best reason to move ahead with the project. Hunter S. Thompson is the person who made me decide at age fourteen that I wanted to become a journalist. Today he remains an inspiration, and has also become a friend.

At Random House, Dan Menaker was enthusiastic and encouraging about this project from the word go; his support, advice, and editing made this book what it is today. Veronica Windholz ensured that I had a truly inspiring team to work with. Stephanie Higgs was forever patient in dealing with my neuroses, Sona Vogel made the manuscript better with every mark of her red pencil, and Laura Goldin, who in her capacity as my onetime babysitter wouldn’t let me eat M&M’s before bedtime, has been an excellent lawyer and a careful reader. Gina Centrello has been everything a writer dreams of having in a publisher—warm, supportive, and editorially savvy. Late in the game, the miraculous Timothy Mennel swooped in with a jaw-droppingly astute final read. David McCormick is simply a great agent: tireless, enthusiastic, imaginative, and patient.

Finally, thanks to Pamela Hamer for her always spot-on suggestions and caring support. Thanks to my sister and brother, Abby and Jake Mnookin, and to my grandparents, Si and Marjorie Miller, for their love, friendship, and support. And (take that, Mom!) thanks to Miss Kitty for her enduring companionship and devotion.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

S
ETH
M
NOOKIN
is a former media writer for
Newsweek,
where he also covered politics, crime, and popular culture. His writing has appeared in
The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review,
Slate,
Spin,
and elsewhere. A 2004 Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, he lives in New York City. For more information, go to
www.sethmnookin.com
.

Copyright © 2004 by Seth Mnookin

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

RANDOM HOUSE
and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Mnookin, Seth.

Hard news : the scandals at the New York times and the future of American media / Seth Mnookin.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. New York times. 2. Press—United States—History—21st century. 3. Journalism—United States—History—21st century. I. Title.

PN4899.N42M66 2004

071’.471—dc22

2004051250

Random House website address:
www.atrandom.com

eISBN: 978-1-58836-418-0

v3.0