Howell Raines, the former editor of the New York Times who left after the most embarrassing journalistic scandal in its history, has launched an attack on the paper's culture of 'complacency and self-satisfaction'. Contradicting reports that he had quit the most powerful job in American journalism, Raines made it clear yesterday that he was fired after becoming a political liability.
In his first public comments since leaving the paper last month, Raines mounted a strong defence of his management style and suggested he had been a casualty of an ideological war over the direction of the paper. 'We were on a carefully planned march ... In the course of that march we stepped on a land mine. I stepped on a land mine called Jayson Blair,' he said.
Blair was the junior reporter who left the Times a month before Raines's departure, after it emerged that many of his stories were either invented or plagiarised from other newspapers. The Times printed a 14,000-word front-page story detailing his transgressions.
Instead of dampening the scandal, this unprecedented mea culpa led to the Times being widely ridiculed and provoked open revolt by some staff against his editorship. Critics claimed he was arrogant, dictatorial and operated a 'star system' that rewarded his favourites - charges that Raines denied during an interview broadcast on national television.
'I do want to say, having known every person who has ever held the title of executive editor ... extending up to myself, that humility and modesty are not adjectives that leap to mind with anyone in that group,' he said. 'We should all strive for inner humility, but it's a job that draws assertive people.'
Raines said that when he became editor - six days before the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Centre - he had set himself the task of changing the culture of complacency at the Times with a culture of competitiveness. The paper, he said, had 'never been out-thought, but we had been out-worked'.
He made a series of similarly combative remarks about the Times's old-boy network and the conservatism shown by some of its journalists when faced with change, though he conceded that he had put too much pressure on some members of his staff. 'I worked them too hard and didn't rest them enough. And also, in terms of the culture of the Times newsroom, I moved the newsroom too far too fast. That was a mistake on my part.'
He said little about Blair, the journalist who brought about his downfall. One of the most damning revelations during the scandal was an internal memo written by one of Blair's editors claiming the reporter was making too many errors and should no longer be allowed to write for the paper.
But Raynes claimed he was not aware of the memo until after Blair had resigned. 'Nevertheless, I was captain of the ship, the ship hit a rock under my watch. The details of how it happened are irrelevant to the fact that the responsibility was mine,' he said.
The Times is conducting an internal inquiry into the events. Its report is eagerly awaited, although perhaps not as eagerly as two other potential publications dealing with what has become known as the Blair Affair.
Blair is trying to secure a six-figure publishing deal for a book telling his side of the story. Meanwhile, Raines said that he, too, would write about his time as editor.
