Former Editor Rejects Thrust of N.Y. Times Note

Howell Raines, the former executive editor of the New York Times, on Wednesday sharply criticized an editor’s note that said some of the paper’s stories about Iraq and its alleged weapons of mass destruction were inaccurate and might have been rushed into print by editors hungry for scoops. The stories in question appeared during Raines’ tenure.

Raines also defended stories by New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who has been criticized by some journalism observers for relying on misleading information from dubious sources.

The former editor said any blame should fall on those who supervised the reporter’s work, including Managing Editor Jill Abramson, who personally edited Miller’s stories.

“My feeling is that no editor did this kind of reckless rushing while I was executive editor,” said Raines, who issued his comments in response to a query from Los Angeles Times media columnist Tim Rutten. Raines resigned last year amid the national uproar over Jayson Blair, a reporter who was found to have plagiarized and fabricated numerous stories, embarrassing the paper.

“I can tell you positively that in 25 years on the Times and in 21 months as executive editor, I never put anything into the paper before I thought it was ready,” Raines said. “Any of the 30 or so people who sat in our front-page meetings during the run-up to the Iraq invasion and the first phase of the war can attest to the seriousness with which everyone took the story.”

Raines also expressed anger over the fact that nobody at the New York Times had asked for his opinion about the paper’s Iraq coverage before issuing the editor’s note in Wednesday’s editions. And, he said, “former associates” had made comments about his tenure that were “inaccurate, misleading or based on personal animus or opposition to my efforts to energize the paper.”

Raines’ comments marked the third time he had publicly voiced sharp criticism of the paper since he and former Managing Editor Gerald Boyd were forced to resign by Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.

Bill Keller, the New York Times’ current executive editor, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening. A spokeswoman for the paper also declined to comment.

The editors’ note, titled “The Times and Iraq,” summarized the conclusions of an internal review of hundreds of Iraq stories that have run in recent years. The paper said it had examined “the failings of American and allied intelligence, especially on the issue of Iraq’s weapons and possible Iraqi connections to international terrorists” and noted that “it is past time we turned the same light on ourselves.”

“We have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged,” Times editors said.

The note concluded that the story of Iraq’s weapons, and the misinformation that has clouded the public debate, remains unfinished business. “And we fully intend to continue aggressive reporting aimed at setting the record straight.”