New Book by Former 'NYT' Public Editor Offers Candid Reflections

By: Greg Mitchell New York Times editors and reporters had reason enough to be wary of Daniel Okrent after he became the newspaper's first ombudsman in late 2003. Imagine how they might feel now that he is totally off the reservation, and coming out with a book on his 18-month tenure, on May 15, called "Public Editor #1."

The book, published by Public Affairs, is largely a collection of his columns during that period, with brief updates, but it also includes a lengthy preface. Here Okrent describes some of his behind-the-scenes battles and offers personal assessments of individuals and the overall newsroom culture. He is often critical but also fond of what he calls "our one truly essential newspaper." He concludes that his proudest accomplishment was: "The Times chose to continue the public editor experiment by appointing another one."

During his reign, he writes, about a dozen employees were "really nasty cases who made my life difficult whenever they could," and he even names a name or two. But, in describing what he faced, he notes that the Times was "arrogantly convinced of its primacy, historically dismissive of both critics and competitors." Before taking the job, "what had always struck me was how unhappy the place seemed to be," beset by "a culture of complaint."

Part of the reason for that, he feels, is that most journalists come to the Times having been "best in show" at smaller papers. "For me, the generalized discontent inside the kennel" made his job a little easier because so many people came to him with gripes or dropped a dime on colleagues' missteps: "Sub-editors would rat out desk heads, Washington bureau reporters whispered sourly about national editors."

Only once, he asserts, "did I find someone pursuing a grossly unfair form of sabotage." This person, according to Okrent, was respected business reporter David Cay Johnston, who charged that the ombud had plunged the paper into "another scandal" by serving on the board of a technologies company, creating an alleged conflict-of-interest.

This caused Okrent's "single worse day on the job," followed by a weekend of considering quitting. Ultimately, he stayed on, since Executive Editor Bill Keller had known about the board position in advance and okayed the idea.

Okrent adds tidy observations about various Timesmen. Keller could be "combative" but when needed "he backed me as well." He writes that Metro editor Joe Sexton always managed to be cordial "yet determinedly uncooperative." The manner of Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. "at times might be described as a sort of aggressive informality." Al Siegal, assistant managing editor for standards, had a reputation for "rudeness" but also for "generous mentoring."

He also describes struggles with highly critical outside interest groups and the "defensive crouch" editors and reporters adopted in response.

The book closes with Okrent's farewell column of May 22, 2005, in which he listed "13 Things I Meant to Write About but Never Did." Then he updates some of his remarks in that piece. He notes that his brief comment about columnist Paul Krugman having the "disturbing habit" of selectively citing statistics produced more "hostile comment" -- including a fabled e-mail battle with Krugman -- than anything he had written. Maureen Dowd was "angry" with Okrent at first but "perfectly cordial" as time went on.

He also offers his final take on the Judith Miller case: "My own supposition is that when Miller was first subpoenaed, somebody on the 14th floor of the Times Building -- either Sulzberger, then-CEO Russ Lewis, or both of them -- grabbed a flag from the nearest stanchion and said, 'To the barricades.' Or, if need be, the Supreme Court.

"Apparently, no one said, 'Let's think this over long and hard and see if we can resolve it without compromising a meaningful principle.'"