Posted on 04/13/2006 5:39:10 PM PDT by Dont Mention the War
UPDATED: 7:49 pm EDT April 13, 2006
NEW YORK -- Howell Raines, the former executive editor of The New York Times, warns at the beginning of his new memoir that the book is about sport fishing and the "unpredictability of luck," not the episode that led to his firing: the Jayson Blair scandal.
Blair was the young Times reporter revealed in 2003 to have fabricated or plagiarized parts of several articles. Raines lost his job over the incident, in part because the paper failed to heed early warnings about Blair's conduct.
The book, "The One that Got Away," also isn't about Raines' oversight of the Times during the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. A year after his departure, the paper said in an editors' note that it had been "taken in" by misinformation about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and published several articles that should have been challenged by editors.
He also didn't dwell on his successes, including the seven Pulitzer prizes the Times won in 2001, his first year on the job.
Instead, "The One that Got Away" is a recounting of fishing adventures, childhood memories and ruminations on what it means to have the biggest fish you've ever caught get away from you.
Raines does deal with Blair near the end of the book, calling him a "gremlin," a "dwarf" and a liar.
He takes shots at colleagues, too, while explaining how he "fell out of love" with the Times.
Among other things, Raines suggested the paper's expose on the Blair scandal laid too much blame on senior editors.
"If I had been writing the story, I would have gone for an approach of layered complexity, placing our failure to catch Jayson into the context of the Times's long-standing editing and personnel practices," he wrote.
Raines also wrote of feeling betrayed by his staff -- something he suggested stemmed from an environment of infighting and turf battles.
Of one Times editor who criticized him in public but was friendly in private, Raines wrote, "What is it about this place that has given this good man the soul of a bushwhacker?"
The 325-page book, published by Simon & Schuster, is due out May 9.
Media Schadenfreude alert.
Hmmm. Sounds like a real ... YAAAAAWWWWWWWNNNNNNN ... page turner.
A liar writing about other liars. Think I'll pass.
only a LIBERAL would brag about getting pulitzer prizes!(theyre the ONLY ones who get them) lol
They buy each other's books and give each other awards.
I can't WAIT not to read this...
I wonder what he has to say about firing A. M. Rosenthal at the urging of Maureen Dowd, who had slept with him earlier?
A. M. Rosenthal was a liberal, but he was an honest and decent liberal, just about the last one left on the NYT's staff.
Then don't wait! Start not reading it now! Get in before the freeper rush to NOT read it! I'm not reading it, right now... in pajamas.
/johnny
"Layered complexity"? Doncha just love it when libs talk that way? I think he wanted to say "nuance", but J. Effin Kerry ruined that word for these elitist snobs.
Freeper speeling police... NYT's staph... as in 'That's a really bad staph infection.'
/johnny
Having got that out of his system, he will retreat to a University some where.
When I became interested in fly fishing I read Raines book about that subject. I didn't learn anything about fishing but I learned a hell of a lot about liberals and their hatred of Republicans.
Well, ok...I wanted to be the first one not to read this, by it's not a surprise that some random freeper would not read this before me. But remember this: I'm a VERY fast non-reader...
/johnny
I stand in awe at your precience, to know to avoid a book filled with, at best, feline flatulance.
I'm still not reading it. And savoring every moment.
/johnny
TOO precious for even Pinchloaf, Draines. That's why you're gone to lunch at the old fishing hole...
"Of one Times editor who criticized him in public but was friendly in private, Raines wrote, "What is it about this place that has given this good man the soul of a bushwhacker?"
Jill Abramson would laugh at you but she doesn't know how, Draines. Her face is frozen that way, don't you know...
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