SPIKED! Jay Fitzgerald points to this story from the Boston Herald, which is gleefully reporting that the New York Times- owned Boston Globe spiked a column critical of Howell Raines:
Inquiring minds want to know: Where was Boring Broadsheet boy wonder Brian McGrory’s Tuesday column? It wasn’t in the paper and our sources say it was spiked.
The reason, we hear, is that McGrory took The New York Times executive editor Howell Raines to task over the Jayson Blair affair and dredged up The Boston Globe’s own dirty laundry: Mike Barnicle.
Which, apparently, didn’t sit too well with the powers that be. Because, we’re told, they refused to run it! McGrory didn’t return our calls and a Globe spokesman declined to discuss the matter.
More crushing of dissent in Ashcroft’s America. . . .
Meanwhile Andrew Sullivan has plenty to say on what’s going on at the Times, as does Mickey Kaus.
UPDATE: Howard Kurtz has more, including this excerpt:
Joe Sexton, a metropolitan desk editor, used a profanity in demanding to know how the paper could have sent Blair, a 27-year-old reporter with a checkered record, to cover the Washington sniper case. “You guys have lost the confidence of much of the newsroom,” Sexton said. . . .
Boyd apologized for his mistakes but said it was “absolute drivel” to suggest that he had acted as a mentor to Blair, who, like the managing editor, is African American. “Did I pat him on the back? Did I say ‘hang in there’? Yes, but I did that with everybody.”
Kaus is right to point out the Times’ squishiness in supporting race preferences in the abstract, but denying them in the concrete. And there’s this bit:
Some Times staffers say what they call Raines’s “autocratic” management style – a “culture of favoritism,” as one described it – helps explain why Blair was deemed untouchable. Since Raines took over in September 2001, several top editors – including the national editor, assistant national editor and two investigative editors – have either left the paper or moved to other assignments. Staffers have complained that Raines runs a top-heavy “Politburo” in which their influence was greatly reduced and managers were categorized as being either on or off the team.
“With us or against us,” eh? Funny, when Bush says stuff like that they accuse him of being simplistic. Kurtz quotes several people who accuse Raines of using the “bad apple” defense, but none is as mean as this:
If mismanagement at Enron had been this clear-cut, the Times would be demanding the death penalty for Ken Lay. Indeed, taking a page from all corporate scandals, the Times insists that the organization is fine; it was just one bad apple. As I recall, the Times editorial page did not accept that explanation when Merrill Lynch said it about Henry Blodget.
Raines’ behavior is far worse than the corporate chieftains. He clearly bears the most responsibility for this fiasco, but when disaster strikes … he blames the black kid! So far, Raines’ response has been basically to say: “You try to help these people …”
Ouch. But it’s the final paragraph that really stings. I think this will get worse before it gets better.