On Management Styles
The NYT’s scandal story continues to roll along, but perhaps the most interesting aspect is how the Jayson Blair problem has precipitated a storm over Howell Raines’s entire tenure. His quote:
You believe the newsroom is too hierarchical, that my ideas get acted on and others get ignored. I heard that you were convinced there’s a star system that singles out my favorites for elevation. … Fear is a problem to such extent, I was told, that editors are scared to bring me bad news.
Wow, all this and he’s going to keep his job. He’s taken a hammer to the Gray Lady and they’re going to keep letting him swing away. I don’t even think this is a liberal/conservative issue: it’s a generational problem in which people our parents’ age bracket think they have a great many answers that improve on the past, when often they are simply reinventing the wheel. And reinventing it unsuccessfully.
And … can anyone explain why the fact that the UK won’t join the Euro makes me feel somehow more at ease?
