| CNN LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE
May 14, 2003 Coming up next, editors at the Gray Lady are red in the face over the Jayson Blair scandal. Peter Viles will have a special report for us on the fallout at "The New York Times" and what may lie ahead. Stay with us.
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DOBBS: The crisis at "The New York Times" widened today as the newspaper's entire staff held an emergency meeting about the Jayson Blair scandal. This comes as federal prosecutors are considering whether that fired reporter broke the law when he deceived his readers and his employers. Peter Viles reports.
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PETER VILES, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The unmistakable look of a management in crisis. The publisher and top editors of "The New York Times" refusing comment as they rushed into an emergency staff meeting. The topic, the Jayson Blair scandal, how it happened, who's responsible, and whether executive editor, Howell Raines, can survive it.
R. W. APPLE, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I think that people are very discouraged by this but not downhearted.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can the current group of editors stay in their jobs?
APPLE: That's way above my pay grade.
VILES: "The Times" laid out Blair's sins in great detail Sunday, but that report raised questions about management's role. How is it that in April of last year, the Metro editor wrote an e-mail saying, quote, "We have to stop Jayson from writing for 'The Times' right now." Yet, no one stopped him, and no one in management is taking responsibility for it.
PAUL COLFORD, "THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS": It was kind of curious to a lot of people that within these pages, the publisher went out of his way to say, We're not going to look for scapegoats, this was just, in effect, one rotten apple, when in the previous pages, it was pointed out that all of the warning signs were there, and they just weren't acted upon.
VILES: Another issue, race. Managing editor Gerald Boyd says it played no role in Blair's hiring and promotion, yet "Times" columnist William Safire wrote in "The Times" that Blair was, quote, "given too many second chances by editors eager for this ambitious black journalist to succeed."
WILLIAM MCGOWAN, AUTHOR, "COLORING THE NEWS": Blair got way ahead, way fast, and I don't think a white reporter at that tender stage of his or her career would have been able to keep a job at the "Times," much less be on the doorstep of being named to the national staff.
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VILES: "Times" reporters left this meeting this afternoon, Lou, saying that this is a matter they want to keep inside the family. But it's not going to be entirely possible, because, as you pointed out, the U.S. attorney here in New York has begun an investigation, looking into -- and this is very unusual to investigate a newspaper -- looking into whether the newspaper may have violated the law or Jayson Blair may have violated the law in these deceptions contained in his articles, Lou.
DOBBS: Pete, it is peculiar, I guess is the best word to use here, to see the top editors of "The New York Times" walking into a meeting doing something like saying, No comment. It didn't look like professional courtesy.
VILES: Yes, it wasn't professional courtesy. And I'll you frankly, having covered a lot of court cases, it was the same exact feeling, waiting for someone to shout a question out at them, knowing they were not going to answer, even though they very well could have stopped, chatted with us, told us what's going on at the paper. This, apparently, is not the time for that at "The New York Times."
DOBBS: OK. Peter Viles, thank you very much.
And that brings us to the subject of our poll tonight. The question, Who is responsible for the scandal at "The New York Times," Jayson Blair, the editors, the publishers, or all of the above? Cast your vote at cnn.com/moneyline. We'll have the preliminary results later in this
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