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Watchung Plaza
Montclair, NJ 07042
973.744.7177
03/25/2010 7:00 pm
03/25/2010 8:00 pm
Boyd's appointment to the role of managing editor of the New York Times
in 2001 made him the first African-American to hold one of the paper's
top two editing positions, and his leadership helped the Times
garner numerous Pulitzers. But colleagues found him gruff and
imposing—a perception he attributed to racial bias—and he was forced to
resign after a young reporter named Jayson Blair was caught
plagiarizing and fabricating stories in 2003. In this memoir, Boyd, who
died in 2006, comes across as a relentlessly ambitious man who overcame
poverty, racism, and a rocky personal life to become one of the most
powerful newsmen of his day. Unfortunately, Boyd proves to be a merely
competent narrator: the prose is smooth but lacks flair, and the
vignettes themselves are disappointingly dry. The notable exception is
the treatment of the Blair scandal: Boyd's blow-by-blow is animated by
indignation and gives a rare glimpse into the rancorous world of
newsroom politics. Although as a source of objective truth the memoir
is more suspect than a news story, Boyd's perspective is crucial to
understanding the crisis that unfolded at the Times in 2003. (from Publishers Weekly)
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