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The Collected Columns (with Reflections, Reconsiderations, and Even a Few Retractions) of the First Ombudsman of The New York Times
PublicAffairs
June 2006
291 pages ISBN: 1586484001 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The wise and witty columns of The New York Times's
first Public Editor, along with a report from him of his
time at the paper, are indispensable for anyone who cares
about how journalism is practiced From December 2003 to
May 2005, Daniel Okrent served as the New York Times'
first "Public Editor," a position created following the
newspaper's Jayson Blair scandal and the tumultuous reign
and resignation of Howell Raines as Executive Editor. His
mission: read the paper and provide his assessments, without
guidance from the paper itself and without fear or favor, of
how well it executed its responsibility to provide
objective, accurate, and complete coverage of the
world-at-large. Not an easy task, but the New York
Times chose the right writer for the job. Experienced,
wise and witty, opinionated but never shrill, he delivered.
Okrent addressed subjects ranging from WMD coverage,
reporter self-promotion, pulling for or piling on political
candidates, and corrections policy, to the Tony Awards, to
the great delight and consternation of the paper's readers,
and those in its own newsroom. Now, collected, amended, and
assessed by Okrent here are the complete columns of his
rocky and illuminating eighteen months along with an
evaluation of the entire experience; its ups and downs and
what he thinks he got right and got wrong. This is a smart,
serious, entertaining, and long-lasting look at what today's
finest journalism does well--and what it can do better.
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