Black & Blue
“There is no such thing as a happy or rationally run newsroom. Anyone who has worked in journalism pretty much assumes that. But could America’s greatest newspaper really be led by such vicious, untrustworthy people? That’s one of the questions one is left with upon reading Gerald Boyd’s angry yet thoughtful posthumous memoir detailing his rise through the hierarchy of The New York Times.”—Ellis Cose, author and columnist, Newsweek, Feb. 22, 2010
(Boyd, the Times’s first black managing editor, lost his job in the wake of the
2003 Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal and died in 2006; his posthumous book is My Times in Black and White.)
(Boyd, the Times’s first black managing editor, lost his job in the wake of the
2003 Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal and died in 2006; his posthumous book is My Times in Black and White.)
Editor’s Note: Ben Bradlee, famed Washington Post editor, called that “creative tension.”
Today’s Wish-I-Were-Here Photo: Tuna Hunt
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Ted, I found newsrooms to be the worst places I ever worked. Envy and backstabbing were commonplace. Newspaper leadership liked reminding us how many people wanted our jobs and how easily replaceable we were. I much prefer freelancing, both in the service journalism industry and at companies that just need good writing. After such a painful start to my career, I still find it surprising to observe how nice and happy people are at companies that are not daily newspapers. I don't know why this is, but I'd certainly never work in a newsroom again. I did meet good people there (including my husband). But on the whole, they're conservative and sullen places.
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