Triumphalism
: Andrew Sullivan practically takes credit for getting rid of Howell Raines. Sorry, Andy, but all your carping about Raines went nowhere until (1) Jayson Blair, lying pile of stinking shit that he is, humiliated the paper, (2) Raines screwed up the handling of l’affair Blair, and (3) the newsroom saw the opening to revolt against an unpopular tyrant and succeeded.
I also expect to hear a lot of self-congratulation in the blog neighborhood over Raines. I’d like to think that blogs had impact on another story — and I do think their nagging kept air in this balloon — but, again, it was Blair and Raines and a newsroom that got rid of Raines.
: Says Mickey Kaus:
If this had happened 10 years ago, when the Internet didn’t exist, Raines would still be running the place. The Times staff would be just as unhappy, but they’d be unable to instantaneously organize and vent their displeasure on Romenesko and elsewhere. It was this suddenly-transparent internal opposition, more than the constant pummeling from bloggers, that brought Raines down.
Well-said.
