Howell Raines - The New York Times

Raines' affiliation with The New York Times began in 1978, when he joined as a national correspondent based in Atlanta. By 1979, Raines was Atlanta's bureau chief, a position he held until 1981, when he became a national political correspondent. By the next year, Raines had advanced to become a White House correspondent for The Times. He progressed to management in 1985, becoming deputy Washington editor. In 1987, Raines transferred to London and worked as the newspaper's London bureau chief. The next year, he returned to Washington D.C. to become the city's bureau chief. In 1992, "Grady's Gift", a narrative of his childhood in Alabama with a focus on the family's black housekeeper, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. His longest-lasting assignment with The Times began in 1993, when he left Washington for New York to become the paper's editorial page editor, a position he held for eight years. The aggressive, colloquial style of his editorials, especially in criticizing President Clinton and his administration, drew widespread notice and a share of criticism, not least because it differed from the measured tone for which Times editorials had been known.

Raines was appointed Executive Editor of The Times in September 2001, serving until May 2003, when controversy stemming from the Jayson Blair scandal led to his dismissal. A Times internal investigation revealed that 36 of the 73 national stories Blair filed with the paper over a six-month period were marred by faked bylines or evidence of plagiarism. Raines was faulted for continuing to publish Blair months after the paper's metro editor, Jonathan Landman, sent him a memo urging him "to stop Jayson from writing for The Times. Right now."

The Blair inquiry soon exposed widespread discontent among Times staffers over Raines' management style, which was described as arbitrary and heavy-handed. During a closed meeting among reporters the deputy metropolitan editor, Joe Sexton, was quoted as telling Raines and the managing editor, Gerald Boyd, "I believe that at a deep level you guys have lost the confidence of many parts of the newsroom... People feel less led than bullied." On another occasion Jerelle Kraus, art director for the newspaper's weekend section, was quoted as saying, "I hope things settle down and we get a decent executive editor who's reasonable. Howell Raines is someone who is feared."

His own investigation led the paper's owner, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., to conclude that Raines had alienated most of the New York and Washington bureaus. Raines' resignation, along with that of Gerald Boyd, was announced in The Times' June 5, 2003 issue. Joseph Lelyveld, who had been Executive Editor of The Times from 1994 to 2001, agreed to replace Raines on an interim basis. On July 14, 2003, it was announced that Bill Keller had been chosen as Raines' permanent replacement. In an interview on the Charlie Rose show of July 11, Raines admitted that Sulzberger had "asked to step aside."