Times editors resign in wake of Blair scandal06/05/2003
NEW YORK - New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd resigned Thursday in the wake of the journalistic fraud scandal involving reporter Jayson Blair.
The Times said Joseph Lelyveld, a former executive editor of the Times, had been named interim executive editor. The paper said no one would be named interim managing editor.
"This is a day that breaks my heart," Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger told staffers at a morning newsroom meeting.
Lelyveld, 66, retired in 2001 after serving as executive editor for seven years. During his tenure, the Times won 12 Pulitzer Prizes, introduced color to its pages, added new sections and expanded its national circulation.
Sulzberger thanked Raines and Boyd for putting the interests of the newspaper first. The Blair scandal wasn't mentioned at Thursday morning's staff meeting, but the case had begun a weeks-long period of turbulence at the Times.
Blair, 27, resigned May 1 after he was found by the Times to have "committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud." The newspaper announced it would form a committee to review newsroom policies, including hiring practices, the use of unidentified sources, the use of freelancers and byline and dateline practices.
The two top editors had been the focus of much of the criticism following the scandal, especially for allowing Blair to cover the Washington-area sniper case when the metropolitan editor had previously raised concerns about the reporter's mistakes.
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Rick Bragg resigned from the Times on May 28 after the newspaper suspended him over a story that carried his byline but was reported largely by a freelancer.
"We know this has been a difficult period," Raines said to the Times staff in an e-mail announcing that Bragg's resignation had been accepted.
Raines, 60, had been criticized for what some saw as his autocratic management style.
"You view me as inaccessible and arrogant," Raines told staffers at a May 14 meeting. "You believe the newsroom is too hierarchical, that my ideas get acted on and others get ignored. I heard that you were convinced there's a star system that singles out my favorites for elevation."
Raines became executive editor just days before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The following April, the Times received a record seven Pulitzer Prizes -- five for its coverage of the terrorist attacks and another for the war in Afghanistan.
"They have made enormous contributions during their tenure," Sulzberger said, "including an extraordinary seven Pulitzer Prizes in 2002 and another this year. I appreciate all of their efforts in continuing the legacy of our great newspaper."
Raines had been editor of the editorial page for eight years and previously headed the newspaper's bureaus in Washington and London when he was named executive editor to replace the retiring Lelyveld.
He won a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1992 for a memoir he wrote for The New York Times Magazine about his childhood friendship in Alabama with his family's black housekeeper.
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