Who cares? You still screwed up
Former Editor Rejects Thrust of N.Y. Times Note
Howell Raines denies Iraq stories were rushed to get scoops during his tenure and blames supervisors, not chief reporter, for mistakes.
By Josh Getlin
Times Staff Writer
May 27, 2004
NEW YORK ? Howell Raines, the former executive editor of the New York Times, on Wednesday sharply criticized an editor's note that said some of the paper's stories about Iraq and its alleged weapons of mass destruction were inaccurate and might have been rushed into print by editors hungry for scoops. The stories in question appeared during Raines' tenure.
Raines also defended stories by New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who has been criticized by some journalism observers for relying on misleading information from dubious sources.
The former editor said any blame should fall on those who supervised the reporter's work, including Managing Editor Jill Abramson, who personally edited Miller's stories.
"My feeling is that no editor did this kind of reckless rushing while I was executive editor," said Raines, who issued his comments in response to a query from Los Angeles Times media columnist Tim Rutten. Raines resigned last year amid the national uproar over Jayson Blair, a reporter who was found to have plagiarized and fabricated numerous stories, embarrassing the paper.
"I can tell you positively that in 25 years on the Times and in 21 months as executive editor, I never put anything into the paper before I thought it was ready," Raines said. "Any of the 30 or so people who sat in our front-page meetings during the run-up to the Iraq invasion and the first phase of the war can attest to the seriousness with which everyone took the story."
