PINCH ON THE SPOT
By KEITH J. KELLY - NEW YORK POST
The hounds are baying already. If the next editor he picks stumbles, he is in trouble.
June 7, 2003 -- New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. has also been damaged in the Jayson Blair scandal, and industry observers are increasingly wondering whether he'll survive, and for how long.
Before top editor Howell Raines quit, "Pinch" Sulzberger reportedly described Raines as being on probation; now it looks more like Sulzberger himself is on probation, both with his family and his roiling newsroom.
"It's a huge lapse in judgment," said one newsroom insider of Sulzberger's sustained backing of Raines.
The Sulzberger clan controls 70 percent of Times voting stock, but the family is hardly united on Pinch's leadership.
Some believe Pinch came under heavy pressure from the older generation, which includes his father, former publisher "Punch" Sulzberger, to oust Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd. Punch was in the newsroom when Raines and Boyd resigned.
Others believe the pressure came as well from Pinch's cousins, headed by Michael Golden, who lost out in a battle to control the company years ago. Golden is now vice chairman and executive vice president of the company.
"Michael Golden has a real voice," noted one veteran Times watcher.
Golden was at a town hall meeting on May 14 where New York editors and reporters railed against Raines, Boyd, and Arthur Jr. for their handling of the Jayson Blair scandal.
"Family dynasties can crumble, just like the Hapsburgs and the Bourbons," said Gay Talese, a former Times reporter and author of "The Kingdom & the Power," a history of the paper.
But Talese is not sure the missteps with Raines and Boyd will inflict long-term damage on the young prince.
"Anyone named Sulzberger has a safety net," said Talese. "If there is a problem and there had to be sacrificial lambs, then it is the viceroys, Raines and Boyd, who get sacrificed."
Others agree.
Former Timesman Alex Jones, co-author with his wife, Susan Tifft, of "The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind the New York Times," said: "This family controls the Times, and it is very much a family tradition to support the member of the family who is entrusted with running the paper.
"There has never been a family coup. Ever. And I very, very much doubt that there will be one now," Jones said.
But if Sulzberger can survive his family, he'll still have trouble regaining trust in the newsroom.
In picking Raines to put his generation's stamp on the newspaper of record, Sulzberger ignored the objections of many Times vets who warned him about Raines' style.
Reporters and editors hated Raines, and when he ran into trouble, he had few defenders.
In particular, he feuded with Jill Abramson, the Washington bureau chief, and in the he process became estranged from most of that key office.
Some believe it was his alienation from Washington, as much as the mutiny in New York that ultimately did in Raines.
Sulzberger had tried desperately to patch things up.
One week before the departure of Raines, Sulzberger sat down Metropolitan Editor Jonathan Landman, an outspoken Raines critic, and Raines and told the estranged duo he needed both of them on board if the paper was to run smoothly, an insider said. When Sulzberger went down for a brown-bag lunch on Tuesday with the 60-person Washington bureau, he was still hoping to ride out the storm with Raines at the helm.
Instead, he found the bureau was "seething."
nypost.com |
