Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 90

Feeling a Little Dizzy

With Dean Baquet becoming chief ed. at NYT today I will note that a high point of our cover profile of him a decade ago at E&P, when he was editor of the L.A. Times, was a visit to his family's then not-so-famous restaurant in New Orleans:  Li'l Dizzy's.  We even featured him on the cover posing at the eatery.  Later, they started set up a regular booth at JazzFest and I enjoyed the Trout Baquet.  Then scenes in Treme were often shot there. 

Abramson Axed at 'NYT'

Jill Abramson, first first female top editor at the NYT, announced her exit today--and she will be replaced by Dean Baquet, who becomes the paper's first African-American chief editor.  She has been much-criticized within the building for some time so it's fascinating, and unusual, for the Times itself to say that her reasons for leaving are "unclear."  Stay tuned.    

UPDATES:  Jeff Zeleny of ABC tweets:  "Jill's departure was forced by Arthur Sulzberger, who called it 'a management issue in the newsroom,'  he told newsroom."  A recent profile of her that cited just such complaints ("arrogant," "overly combative" etc.) was denounced by some--not yours truly, based on what I'd heard--prematurely as "sexist."  I should also note that she's too often gotten a pass on her role as Washington bureau chief at the paper during the run-up to the Iraq war when she supervised Judy Miller and others.  She admitted her own failures on that in passing here as "egregious." No kidding. I'm also curious about her role, as #2 at the paper, in spiking that James Risen NSA spying scoop in 2004 (see my piece on Bill Keller here).

UPDATES #2:  Final bit in this piece makes one wonder if Baquet had another good job offer and Sulzberger, who may have felt he'd ease Abramson out over time, decided to move quickly.  But Ken Auletta at The New Yorker now posts several other reasons.    

Sulzberger's memo to staff:

Dear Colleagues, I am writing to announce a leadership change in the newsroom. Effective today, Dean Baquet will become our new executive editor, succeeding Jill Abramson.

This appointment comes at a time when the newsroom is about to embark on a significant effort to transition more fully to a digital-first reality and where, across the organization, we are all learning to adapt to the rapid pace of change in our business.

We owe Jill an enormous debt of gratitude for positioning the newsroom to succeed on both of these critical counts and of course, for preserving and extending the level of our journalistic excellence and innovation. She’s laid a great foundation on which I fully expect Dean and his colleagues will build.

As those of you who know Dean will understand, he is uniquely suited to this role. He is a proven manager, both here at The Times and elsewhere. He is also a consummate journalist whose reputation as a fierce advocate for his reporters and editors is well-deserved. And importantly, he is an enthusiastic supporter of our push toward further creativity in how we approach the digital expression of our journalism.

I know you will join me, Mark and the rest of the senior leadership team in wishing Jill the best and congratulating Dean on his appointment.

Arthur

Mr. Bob and Mr. Frank

Lot of comment in past day as Dylan releases cover of old Sinatra song, seemingly preview of a new album of covers.  Makes me recall a favorite TV moment, when Bob joined tribute to Frank near his death.  Did a truly touching "Restless Farewell" (one of his most underrated early songs) as Sinatra looked on, maybe a bit confused, and Bob thanked "Mr. Frank."

Bush's Turd Blossom Brain

Jon Stewart: Rove and GOPers trying to launch Hillary "Brain-gazi" scandal.


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The Risen Fall of Bill Keller

It's not exactly news that Bill Keller, as executive editor of the NYT, acted cowardly and disgracefully in 2004 in spiking James Risen's bombshell on Bush administration/NSA warrantless spying on Americans.  Some have claimed this cost John Kerry the election that fall, but I've always concentrated on the journalistic cowardice and pre-Snowden public right to know.  In any case: It was great to see Frontline in part one of its epic program tracing NSA snooping since 2001--and a squirely Bill Keller himself--reveal fully what a hapless and easily cowed coward Keller was on spiking that Risen scoop (after White House pleas).  And then clearly show how he only published it, more than a year later, when Risen insisted on exposing it in a book.

Also, the show reminded us that Edward Snowden refused to go to Keller's paper with his scoops due to NYT's handling of the Risen material.

'Sugarman" Director Dead

The director of the swell Oscar-winning doc, Searching for Sugarman, has been found dead at the age of 36 in Stockholm, Variety just reporter.  Interview with him and musician Rodriquez.

Armed Man at TV Station?

Update:  Mentally ill suspect in custody.  See footage of the truck crashing into the entrance to station.

Earlier: Bizarre: stolen truck crashes into WMAR Channel 2 in Baltimore area, armed man apparently gets out and may still be in the station building.  SWAT team there. School next door.  Update here.  Station covers on its Web site.  Suspect had shouted that he was God. Station staffers reportedly evacuated. Live coverage by a rival TV station, another here.

Occupy This

While writing daily, often hourly, about the early Occupy days, for six months, I covered Annie Appel's portrait-taking several times (see my ebook on that period).  Now she has readied a 500-page book, with some written material from Chris Hedge and Carne Ross. and of course her pictures of activists in 12 sites.  But she needs some dough via KickStarter.  Here's her page.  And video:

The Boys from Ipanema? And a Hillary Slam

With Glenn Greenwald's book out today, GQ has a full Q & A out, which includes this amusing exchange on a not so amusing subject (Snowden in Russia).

Greenwald: He says he has nothing with him.  The only reason he’s in Russia is that the U.S. blocked his attempt to go to Ecuador. Russia is planning on extending his visa either for another year or for five years or maybe even permanently. But it’s an odd situation, because he’s obviously expressed interest in having asylum in other places. We actually created a pretty widespread campaign here for Brazil to give him asylum. I’ve always had an amusing dream: to take a picture of the two of us drinking caipirinhas on Ipanema beach and then uploading it to Instagram, and then tweeting it, and causing this systemic massive-heart-attack syndrome in Fort Meade.

 And here he lets loose on Hillary Clinton:

Hillary is banal, corrupted, drained of vibrancy and passion. I mean, she’s been around forever, the Clinton circle. She’s a fucking hawk and like a neocon, practically. She’s surrounded by all these sleazy money types who are just corrupting everything everywhere. But she’s going to be the first female president, and women in America are going to be completely invested in her candidacy. Opposition to her is going to be depicted as misogynistic, like opposition to Obama has been depicted as racist. It’s going to be this completely symbolic messaging that’s going to overshadow the fact that she’ll do nothing but continue everything in pursuit of her own power. They’ll probably have a gay person after Hillary who’s just going to do the same thing.

The Sequel: Man Shoots Cousin After Mistaking Him for A Turkey

Last week we had the Ohio farmer who shot and killed a farmhand thinking she was a groundhog.  Now we have a New Hampshire hunter who shoots a cousin mistaking him for a wild turkey.   “Head to toe. Beak to tail,” Mackay insisted. “It really shouldn’t happen. A human doesn’t really look like a turkey in the woods.”  No fatality this time, at least.