Arthur Gelb Recounts Emotional Blair Saga

By: Seth Porges Book Review

City Room
by Arthur Gelb
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 665 pages

At 10 a.m. on June 5, Arthur O. Sulzlberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, called Arthur Gelb and several other top Times veterans, into his boardroom and informed them that Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd were stepping down as the two top editors at the paper. "It was an emotional jolt," Gelb now writes, "and I couldn't bring myself, a half-hour later, to go to the newsroom and witness their sorrowful farewells."

In City Room, Gelb's forthcoming memoir of his 45 years at the Times, the longtime editor gives an account of the last half-century through the lens of the hectic frenzy of the newspaper's city room. In his account of the Jayson Blair fiasco, Gelb says that critics used the Blair incident as an excuse to pound on the Times, but also accuses the paper of reacting in a way that bordered on "self-flagellation," most notably in its "apocalyptic" four-page correction.

"Once thrown open, the floodgates of criticism overflowed," Gelb writes. "Some of the anger was justified, some not." Many reporters from outside media were "gleeful at the chance to take a whack at the lordly Times."

Furthermore, Gelb believes that staff from within the Times used the Blair situation to unleash built-up anger. "The paper's apocalyptic four-page saga of self-incrimination, and its unrelenting insistence on beating up on itself ... licensed a release of pent-up resentment harbored by many on the newsroom staff toward its top management," Gelb writes.

The combination of righteous indignation over Blair and personal loathing from those with hostility towards the Times turned the incident into an overblown crisis with ramifications far beyond what Gelb believes were warranted. He credits this overreaction, both by critics and Times management, for creating a scenario in which the resignation of Raines became inevitable.

"But in Howell's case, he became more vulnerable and defensive when the Blair affair took on characteristics of a scandal," Gelb writes. "The critical onslaught appeared gradually to immobilize him. He lost control of the newsroom. After five weeks of agonizing, Howell and Gerald 'resigned.' No executive editor or managing editor had ever been forced to resign, and the shock waves reverberated through the Times, not to mention the journalism world at large."

While Gelb does not seek to defend Blair (and in fact says that Raines and Boyd "took far too long" to take any decisive action against him), he encourages observers and critics to view the case for what it is -- and nothing more.