May 15, 2003

May 15, 2003

NEW YORK TIMES: DO AS WE SAY NOT AS WE DO

HOWELL RAINES REINCARNATED AS MY AUNT ROSE

Yale Kramer

Since Howell Raines and Sulzberger Jr. took over, The New York Times has been fiercely partisan in its editorial policies and in its news coverage. If there is any doubt about it, see today’s article by Jacques Steinberg covering the secret “town Meeting” held yesterday between the Times management and its newsroom staff to air long festering grievances.

There are three things that are noteworthy about the article. The first is that it was closed to everybody and those who attended were “sworn” to secrecy. Contrary to what it criticizes in government and business—lack of transparency—always demanding access to internal memos of officials and transcripts of meetings, the Times does not think that the public has a right to know about the scandal that affects the most influential news medium in the country. PRINT THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING—WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO HIDE?

Perhaps what it has to hide is that, contrary to its reputation for being liberal and fighting against the Bush presidency which it sees as autocratic, authoritarian, arrogant and unresponsive to the public and other branches of government, The New York Times is run by Raines, Boyd, and Sulzberger in an autocratic, authoritarian manner, and is unresponsive to other editors and journalists. That the triumvirate are bullying, smug, self-righteous, and arrogant. That the staff is so fear-ridden that they are afraid to express any differing opinion. So much for the Times reputation for liberality and democracy.

Finally, Howell Raines is quoted (having been secretly recorded) in response to the charge that he was biased in his handling of Jayson Blair and perhaps other minority reporters. This is his response, his way of accepting blame for the scandal: “ ‘Our paper has a commitment to diversity and by all accounts he appeared to be a promising young minority reporter,’ Mr. Raines said. ‘I believe in aggressively providing hiring and career opportunities for minorities.’

“ ‘Does that mean I personally favored Jayson?’ he added a moment later. ‘Not Consciously. But you have a right to ask if I, as a white man from Alabama, with those convictions, gave him one chance too many by not stopping his appointment to the sniper team. When I look into my heart for the truth of that, the answer is yes.’”

I’m sorry that nobody reading this ever met my aunt Rose. Rose the Righteous we called her, behind her back. Well, Aunt Rose has been reincarnated in the form of Howell Raines.

Aunt Rose was an ample-bosomed lady with a strong voice and intrusive manner who had an opinion about everything. She reigned supreme in her home, where she kept the shrunken body of her husband Isadore propped up in an overstuffed chair in the living room. In our family in general she was a force to be reckoned with, an incarnation of the legendary operatic Jewish-mother.

Whenever it appeared that some disappointment or disaster was traceable to her actions, she would draw herself up with dignity, her eyes looking heavenward for sustenance, and intone, in a vein of self-righteousness masquerading as an admission of guilt, "Yes, it's my fault. The trouble is that I'm too good." In our family we all learned to identify her brilliant performance as the Aunt Rose Defense. Howell Raines has got it down pat.