When Editors Bend to Reporters
From zeitgeist queen Tina Brown's column in today's Washington Post:
The Times left out the best bit of then-Investigative Editor (and now Los Angeles Times Managing Editor) Doug Frantz's contribution to Van Natta's account of the day when Frantz and Foreign Editor Roger Cohen objected to a story involving allegations that there were 1,000 or more WMD sites identified in Iraq. Miller complained to then-Managing Editor Gerald Boyd, and, according to a quote that didn't make it in, "A couple of hours later, Gerald pulled Roger and me into his office and chewed us out. 'Judy Miller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, and your job is to get her stories into the paper!' said Gerald."
Wow; do you think current ME Jill Abramson pulls that shit for other reporters? Doubtful. Somehow, "Alex Kuczynski married well and wears fancy clothes, and your job is to get her shopping stories into the paper!" just doesn't have the same ring to it.