Raines Out on Proverbial Ass

Wow, I guess creating an atmosphere where plagiarism and lying like Satan himself were tolerated is a pretty big deal after all:

The New York Times announced today that Joseph Lelyveld, former executive editor of The Times, has been named interim executive editor, assuming the responsibilities held by Howell Raines, who has resigned as executive editor. Gerald M. Boyd has also resigned as managing editor. No one will be named interim managing editor.

“Howell and Gerald have tendered their resignations, and I have accepted them with sadness based on what we believe is best for The Times,” said Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times and chairman of The New York Times Company. “They have made enormous contributions during their tenure, including an extraordinary seven Pulitzer Prizes in 2002 and another this year. I appreciate all of their efforts in continuing the legacy of our great newspaper.

“I am grateful to Joe Lelyveld, an editor of superb talents and outstanding accomplishments, for his willingness to provide strong journalistic leadership as we select new executive and managing editors. While the past few weeks have been difficult, we remain steadfast in our commitment to our employees, our readers and our advertisers to produce the best newspaper we can by adhering to the highest standards of integrity and journalism. For nearly 152 years, The Times has devoted itself to this mission. With the efforts of our outstanding staff, we believe we can raise our level of excellence even higher.”

Mr. Lelyveld, 66, retired in 2001, after having served as executive editor for seven years. During his tenure, The Times won 12 Pulitzer Prizes, introduced color to its pages, added new sections and greatly expanded its national circulation.

Mr. Lelyveld’s assignments as a correspondent included Congo, India and Pakistan, Hong Kong, London and Washington. He was twice the correspondent in South Africa, in 1965 and again from 1980 to 1983. He was also a staff writer and columnist for The New York Times Magazine. He returned to New York as a foreign editor in 1987 and became managing editor, the second highest executive in the newsroom, in 1990 before being named executive editor in 1994.

Mr. Lelyveld has been active as a freelance writer since his departure from The Times, writing for The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine.

His book, “Move Your Shadow,” which described decades of racial turmoil in South Africa and reflected his two assignments there, won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1986. He also won numerous awards for his reporting, including two George Polk Memorial Awards, and received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Mr. Raines, 60, became executive editor of The New York Times in 2001, after having served as editorial page editor of The Times since 1993. Previously he had been Washington bureau chief since 1988 and bureau chief in London since 1987.

From 1985 until 1987, Mr. Raines served as deputy Washington editor. Before that he was the chief national political correspondent in 1984, a White House correspondent from 1981 until 1984, and Atlanta bureau chief from 1979 until 1981. He joined The Times in 1978 as a national correspondent in Atlanta.

Mr. Raines won the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing in 1992 for “Grady’s Gift,” a personal reflection that appeared in The New York Times Magazine.

Mr. Boyd, 52, was named managing editor of The New York Times in 2001, after having served as deputy managing editor for news since 1997. Before that, Mr. Boyd had been assistant managing editor from 1993 until 1997.

Mr. Boyd also served as the co-senior editor of The Times’s “How Race is Lived in America” series, which was published in 2000 and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in the following year. [press release]

Raines can fish all he wants now.