Jayson Revolt: 43rd St. Petition by Times Tyros (group wants end to newsroom favoritism)

As Al Siegal and his investigative committee continue to hash out exactly how the 152-year-old institution allowed 27-year-old reporter Jayson Blair to invent datelines and events and imaginary vistas, 13 of the newspaper’s bright young things have been hammering away at a memo to Mr. Siegal and other members of the committee calling for changes in how the paper treats its young.

Among the early drafts of the memo being circulated, the group calls upon Times management to end favoritism in the newsroom, develop transparent procedures for filling open positions, and provide other amenities for young reporters eager for advancement.

"We figured it was better to speak collectively as one voice rather than individually," said 27-year-old Washington-based reporter Jennifer 8. Lee, who’s helping draft the document.

With the notable exception of race, perhaps no theory of Mr. Blair’s decline and fall has been as popular as his youth and relative inexperience when it came to big stories, such as the D.C. sniper saga of last autumn. The young hotshot, it was thought, was allowed to flood The Times’ zone with bad information, thanks in no small part to a lack of oversight by a regime that prized its ability to pluck the young from outer space and make them into stars.

In a way, the youngsters’ complaints will not be news to the Siegal committee. In a committee memo widely released on May 22 as part of The Times’ continued self-flagellation before its reporters, Mr. Siegal presented a series of questions the committee would be asking.

"How widely do we communicate the availability of assignments? Do those (supervisors and managers) with knowledge get a chance to advise on a potential assignment? How do we track the aspirations of current staff members? How do we counsel them on realistic expectations and on what they can do to qualify? …. Is the system transparent? Does Staffer A know that Staffer B is preparing for a foreign assignment? Does Staffer A understand why Staffer B was chosen?"

To the authors of this memo, the questions are rhetorical because the answers are obvious.

This is The Times, which has long been run as a kind of sacred trust—and for a young reporter making his or her way through the labyrinth of promotions and desk assignments, a rabbi is needed.

That kind of mentorship is not altogether common: It’s hard to act as a writing coach and career counselor when you’ve got your own deadlines to make.

In talking with Off the Record, Metro reporter Lydia Polgreen, 27, one of the reporters planning to sign onto the memo’s final draft, went out of her way to describe her experience at The Times as "overwhelmingly positive," though "not overwhelmingly friendly."

"The culture of the place is to compete on a very high level," Ms. Polgreen said. "Other papers employ writing coaches and mentoring programs, but here you’re expected to perform at a certain level. That’s just the expectation, and it’s a reasonable expectation."

It is, perhaps, a far less militant version of Mr. Blair’s recent statement about The Times: "Was I too young? For a newspaper reporter’s job at a great newspaper, maybe not," he told Off the Record last week. "Was I too young for a snake pit like that? Maybe."

Demanding transparency on the part of The Times and an end to "backroom" dealings, the memo calls for the open posting of available positions and a listing of all the qualities that management seeks in the applicants (experience, languages spoken, a willingness to relocate).

Signers want The Times to increase the number of people in the newsroom devoted to career development and add journalism instruction outside the newsroom.

"I think these concerns are not at all unique to young reporters at The Times," 31-year-old reporter Shaila Dewan, who plans to sign the petition, said. "But there has been a call for input from all constituencies, and so we were trying, as one constituency, to give it."

According to the memo, this would mean the creation of something tentatively titled the "registry of hopes and dreams," to help management with a reminder of the long-term career goals of the paper’s young reporters.

Commenting on the situation, one young Times staffer said that Mr. Blair’s case was being co-opted by his former colleagues.

"Young people are trying to seize on this and better their circumstances by playing the ‘age card,’ in hopes of advancing their career even more," the staffer said. "They’re making it seem like anything that comes against them in the future is the result of Jayson Blair."

(Ms. Lee in response said the measure was meant to provide constructive points for the Siegal committee.)

The document originated at a lunch at Don Giovanni’s on May 16, two days after the raucous town-hall meeting in a midtown theater where executive editor Howell Raines flagellated himself before his subjects. Sitting down, 10 reporters picked over the wreckage from the grenades that had been furiously tossed at Mr. Raines, managing editor Gerald Boyd and publisher Arthur Sulzberger only 48 hours before. Common complaints included the arbitrariness of assignments, a top-down management style and the increasing displacement of women in the newsroom.

Times spokesperson Catherine Mathis, pointing to the Siegal memo said, "Certainly the newspaper is seeking to address issues of hiring, promotion and training" for all staffers, not just young ones.

"We are at a point where the organization is trying to reevaluate itself. It has done so before, and will do so again."

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The New York Times has quietly ended its relationship with Sarah Khalil, who helped set up the paper’s Kuwait bureau for the war—and who is also the niece of Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress.

Mr. Chalabi, an international businessman and perhaps Iraq’s most famous émigré, is the odds-on favorite to serve as the next leader in a new Iraq and, even before the war, served as the inspiration for many neoconservative pundits’ arguments in favor of a Halliburton-friendly post-Saddam Iraq.

In an e-mail exchange with Off the Record, chief Washington correspondent Patrick Tyler—currently reporting from Baghdad—explained that he hired Ms. Khalil, a former staffer with the AFP news agency in Cairo, in January, while setting up the Kuwait bureau for the war.

Mr. Tyler said he met Ms. Khalil, the wife of a Kuwaiti-based businessman and the mother of two small children, while working for The Washington Post in the 1980’s and hired her as an assistant "whose work was confined to Kuwait." This, Mr. Tyler said, included arranging visas for war correspondents and directing supplies into war zones.

"The politics of postwar Iraq were not even on the horizon," Mr. Tyler said. "I certainly didn’t expect to be covering them. Chalabi was not in the news or even in the region. When he came across the horizon after the war, Sarah and I had a discussion about Chalabi’s rising profile and the appearance of conflict."

According to sources at The Times, editors and senior writers in The Times’ Washington bureau objected to Ms. Khalil’s presence and demanded that Mr. Tyler relieve her of her duties.

"The discussions with editors about Sarah Khalil also began after Chalabi came into the news in the postwar period," he wrote in an e-mail, "and they related solely to a decent and amiable termination of the relationship and the recognition that we all wanted to avoid the appearance of conflict."

Mr. Tyler said it was always the understanding that when things wound down in Kuwait, so would Ms. Khalil’s job with The Times.

"She was always extremely open and understanding about it," Mr. Tyler said, "and was a very capable news assistant."

Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said Ms. Khalil’s last day with The Times was May 20. She said the paper "does not have a policy on employment of relatives of news figures.

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Buster Olney, can you say "Boo-ya?" Well, you’d better learn. That’s because Mr. Olney, The New York Times’ chronicler of much of the Yankees’ mid- to late-1990’s championship run, is heading to ESPN. In an interview with Off the Record on May 27, Mr. Olney said his new gig would include appearing on television as well as writing for the Web site and ESPN the Magazine.

"I had other chances to leave The Times, but this is an incredible opportunity," Mr. Olney told Off the Record.

While the deal at the Disney-owned network might have been sweet, Times sources said circumstances at The Times may have influenced Mr. Olney’s departure.

According to sources, Mr. Olney, 39, was increasingly unhappy with how the department was being run from above. They said he’d been distraught over the treatment of former sports editor Neil Amdur, and over the management decision to spike two columns by Dave Anderson and Harvey Araton on the Augusta National controversy. (The Times covered the controversy vigorously and editorialized against Augusta’s policy on women.)

Asked how much internal Times politics played a role in his decision, Mr. Olney would only say: "I love the paper and had a great time at the paper. Neil was great to work for. [New sports editor] Tom Jolly is a great editor. I wouldn’t leave if this wasn’t a terrific opportunity."

You may reach Sridhar Pappu via email at: spappu@observer.com. This column ran on page 1.

Sorry, but I cannot take seriously someone named Jennifer 8 Lee. Especially when she's the same age as Blair and herself a minority, which makes her just as suspect. (Affirmative action's a bitch, ain't it Seven? I mean Eight?)

...and for a young reporter making his or her way through the labyrinth of promotions and desk assignments, a rabbi is needed.

They don't need a rabbi. They need an exorcist.

"You know what really drives me nuts? It's not even "8", it"s "8." Eight PERIOD. As if the "8" is an abbreviation."

She probably would have had a middle name if her mother knew how to spell.

The Times will remain a politically-bigoted cesspool until the towering ego of Howell Raines is pulled off its self-constructed pedestal and topples into Times Square. These young reporters are out to get fairer treatment for themselves -- all well and good. But they are also missing the heart of the story that is happening right in front of them.
And as long as Howell Raines remains the uber-Editor of the Times, they will have to stay away from that larger story, if their want to keep their jobs.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, now up on UPI and FR (the title is not a misprint), "Memorial Day 2033."

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