RAINES AND BLAIR (Howell Raines Was An Enthusiastic Enabler For Blair Reporting Fraud)

AndrewSullivan.Com ^ | May 12, 2003 | Andrew Sullivan

[PJ-Comix]

Yesterday was the first time most New York Times readers will have realized the full extent of the damage that Jayson Blair and his enablers at the very top of the New York Times have done to the newspaper. To their credit, the Times' editors have laid out the full scope of deceipt and incompetence that allowed what they call this 152-year low-point to happen. But their own account is also devastating - not about the ingenious lies and fraud of Jayson Blair - but about how the New York Times is currently run and edited. What seems obvious is that Blair wasn't that enterprising or clever; his lies were easily checked; the travel receipts he submitted were proof enough of his deception; his own editors were aware of the problems and told management; there were plenty of complaints from readers; and so on. The scandal, in other words, isn't what an overwhelmed, twenty-something young reporter succeeded in getting away with. The scandal is how he wasn't stopped, and despite crystal-clear warnings, was actually promoted at the behest of the highest authorities in the place: Gerald Boyd and Howell Raines. They weren't just AWOL for this calamity; they compounded and magnified it, by promoting Blair again and again, despite their own editors' ferocious objections and a fast-accumulating record of inaccuracy and deception.

[PJ-Comix]

In any other organization, Howell Raines would have been fired. However, since Raines has NY Times publisher, Pinch Sulzberger, totally mesmerized by himself (someone should write an article on that topic) in an almost cult-like way, he has got Pinch out there declaring that folks like Raines shouldn't be "demonized."

[appeal2]

I cancelled my subscription to the Slimes a year ago. After 27 years of getting that rag I said enough. Every morning I would open it up and just get more and more infuriated. This could be the final nail in the coffin for this liberal bastion. I now subscribe to the NY Post and while they are known for their sensational headlines and selacious pictures, they are a credible conservative voice in NY.

[MEG33]

If we are to blame no one but Blair then I am left with only one option.I can never trust the accuracy of the NYT.

[twntaipan]

What did Raines know, and when did he know it.

[Guillermo]

Diversity trumps truth.

[Pharmboy]

I said it before, but allow me to repeat myself: they judged him by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character. Fools.

It will take years and a bloodbath on 43rd Street for the Times to recover from this. Raines resignation is a necessary first step; the longer they put that off, the longer it will take to come back.

[Pharmboy]

Brian Fellows (played by Tracy Morgan on Saturday Night Live)

Anyone else struck by the similarities?

[syriacus]

I'm sure the NY Times considered its reporting "balanced"... (though I didn't)... and look where it ended up.

Balance might be important, but "truth in reporting" should be the main objective.

[onyx]

Like most people with a leftist agenda, (which includes and describes the honchos at NYTimes and most media outlets), Blair, and other blacks and minorites, are granted "special favors" because of race --- must be inclusive, you know.

The left, (our enemy within) will always adhere to the old adage which says "the end justifies the means."

On the rare occasions when they're caught outrigthly, the back pedaling is a site to behold!

Even now, excuses are being fabricated for this creep. To wit: On Fox's News Watch, both Jane Hall and Neil Gabler mounted the Leftist defense, crying "victimhood" for Blair, proclaiming Blair "a victim of the pressure to produce." (Whatever the hell that means)!