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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rollcast... who wrote (1945)	6/6/2003 5:02:40 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793885

Raines's Fall Boosts NYT Washington Bureau WASHINGTON BUZZ - HARRY JAFFE and CHUCK CONCONI In the perennial power struggle between the New York Times and its Washington bureau, the fall of Howell Raines represents a victory for the DC journalists. In the daily's most important newsroom beyond its Manhattan home, there was "a sense of shock at the suddenness," says one DC editor, but it was accompanied by a sense of vindication, especially for Washington bureau chief Jill Abramson. According to news accounts over the past year, Raines had denigrated and demeaned Abramson. He had increased her discomfort by installing controversial correspondent Patrick Tyler in the bureau as his handpicked bureau chief in waiting. After this week?s events, Tyler could be waiting forever. No one in the bureau would comment on the record, especially when asked about a visit earlier this week by publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. The youthful publisher held a brown-bag lunch at the bureau on Tuesday. "I don't want to hear anything beyond this room," he told bureau staffers. But Sulzberger heard plenty from the Washington staff. "People were saying things to Arthur they wouldn't have said after four beers a few weeks ago," says one source. "It was an amazingly frank exchange of views." Many of the editors and reporters had worked with Raines when he was chief of the 60-person bureau from 1988 to 1992. At the Tuesday meeting, some expressed sympathy for him, but others complained about his authoritarian style and erratic news judgment. Sources say some "hotheads" at the Tuesday meeting used epithets to rail at Raines and his favoritism toward two reporters who went unnamed. Their comments boiled down to a lack of trust in Raines and managing editor Gerald Boyd. The discovery weeks ago that Times reporter Jayson Blair, one of Raines's favorites, had fabricated stories touched off a round of recriminations and self-examination within the paper. It was fallout from Blair, plus the resignation of writer Rick Bragg, jokes about the Times on late-night TV, and many leaked comments on the Internet, that brought Sulzberger to Washington for his heart-to-heart session. Before leaving, the publisher said he had no plans to fire Raines and anticipated no changes in the bureau. That was a vindication for Abramson, who had been feeling the heat from Raines and Tyler. Raines installed Tyler as the chief Washington correspondent shortly after he took over as executive editor in September 2001. Tyler, who had been reporting from abroad, moved into a vacant office in the bureau. Tyler brought years of swashbuckling reporting along with his friendship with Raines, but he also came with baggage. He's run into criticism for his close relationship with Saudi Arabian Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan and other Saudi sources. Several questions about his reporting were said to have come up at the Tuesday session, including a reference to stories he wrote about Mobil Oil when he worked for the Washington Post in 1979 that resulted in a libel suit that dragged on for years. The suit, brought by then, Mobil president William Tavoulareas, was eventually won by the Post, but it cost the paper well over a million dollars in legal fees. Tyler has been reporting from Baghdad and is not expected to return soon. He was not available for comment. Jill Abramson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, took over the bureau in 2000 from Michael Oreskes. She did not return phone calls for this story. After Jayson Blair's fabrications and plagiarisms became public, the Times formed a committee "to conduct a comprehensive review of the way we work together in our newsroom." Abramson was a member of the committee, along with longtime Washington-bureau investigative reporter Jeff Gerth and veteran DC editor Steve Holmes. Still, staffers don't expect Abramson to remain at the post for more than a year; she?s said she's ready for a move. Longtime political correspondent Adam Clymer is scheduled to retire in a few weeks, too. With Tyler's patron out of power, Abramson's successor is in question. Years ago the New York-Washington turf war cost the Times one of the most respected names in American journalism?David Broder. The Pulitzer Prize, winning political correspondent was hired by the Times from the Washington Star in the late 1960s. New York, he says, was then in a struggle to gain control over a Washington bureau that had been run by James "Scotty" Reston, "who had made it a separate empire." After 15 months of being frustrated by ?the New York bureaucracy,? Broder says, he jumped at the opportunity to go to the Washington Post: "I quit about 15 seconds before I would have been fired by the bureaucracy for insubordination." The Washington bureau has been run by such famed journalists as Max Frankel, Bill Kovach, Arthur Krock, Tom Wicker, and Hedrick Smith. Who could fill such august shoes? Richard Berke, whose title is Washington editor, runs the bureau when Abramson is not around. Like her, Berke is a well-regarded Washington journalist. He was chief political writer for nearly a decade before becoming Abramson?s number two. He previously covered the White House and Congress and has been with the Times for 17 years. Whither Abramson? "Why not managing editor?": says one journalist. "It's as good a fantasy as any other." washingtonian.com