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Public Editor Number One: The Collected Columns (with Reflections, Reconsiderations, and Even a Few Retractions) of the First Ombudsman of The New York Times
From December 2003 to May 2005, Daniel Okrent served as the New York Times ' first "Public Editor," a position created following the newspaper's Jayson Blair scandal and the tumultuous reign and resignation of Howell Raines as Executive Editor. His read the paper and provide his assessments, without guidance from the paper itself and without fear or favor, of how well it executed its responsibility to provide objective, accurate, and complete coverage of the world-at-large. Not an easy task, but the New York Times chose the right writer for the job. Experienced, wise and witty, opinionated but never shrill, he delivered. Okrent addressed subjects ranging from WMD coverage, reporter self-promotion, pulling for or piling on political candidates, and corrections policy, to the Tony Awards, to the great delight and consternation of the paper's readers, and those in its own newsroom. Now, collected, amended, and assessed by Okrent here are the complete columns of his rocky and illuminating eighteen months along with an evaluation of the entire experience; its ups and downs and what he thinks he got right and got wrong. This is a smart, serious, entertaining, and longlasting look at what today's finest journalism does well— and what it can do better.
- GenresJournalism
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2006
About the author
Daniel Okrent
16 books74 followersDaniel Okrent's 40-year career has encompassed nearly every form of mass media. In book publishing, he was an editor at Knopf, Viking, and Harcourt. In magazines, he founded the award-winning New England Monthly and was chief editor of the monthly Life. In newspapers, he was the first public editor of the New York Times. On television, he has appeared as an expert commentator on many network shows, and talked more than any other talking head in Ken Burns's Baseball. In film, he was featured in the documentaries Wordplay and Silly Little Game, appeared in a speaking role in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown, and had what he calls "a mumbling role" in Lasse Hallstrom's The Hoax. Online, he headed Time Inc.'s internet efforts in the late 1990's, and has recently given in to the dubious charms of Facebook.
But all that, he says, was either preparation for (or distraction from) what he most wanted to do: write books. Beginning with Nine Innings in 1985, and proceeding through the 2010 publication of Last Call, Okrent has been (wrote novelist Kevin Baker in Publishers Weekly) "one of our most interesting and eclectic writers of nonfiction over the past 25 years." In addition to the books featured on this site, he was also co-author with Steve Wulf of Baseball Anecdotes (Oxford University Press, 1987), and author of The Way We Were: New England Then, New England Now (Grove Weidenfeld, 1989), currently out-of-print.
But all that, he says, was either preparation for (or distraction from) what he most wanted to do: write books. Beginning with Nine Innings in 1985, and proceeding through the 2010 publication of Last Call, Okrent has been (wrote novelist Kevin Baker in Publishers Weekly) "one of our most interesting and eclectic writers of nonfiction over the past 25 years." In addition to the books featured on this site, he was also co-author with Steve Wulf of Baseball Anecdotes (Oxford University Press, 1987), and author of The Way We Were: New England Then, New England Now (Grove Weidenfeld, 1989), currently out-of-print.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 27, 2021
A book of 38 opinion columns about New York Times articles and reporters over a year and a half from 2003-2005 couldn’t be interesting…could it? They should be somewhat stale and who cares about old news...or opinions about old news? Yet from the pen and evergreen columns of Danial Okrent there is much to learn and enjoy in the timeless analyses of New York Times journalism in the entertaining Public Editor #1.
A few prime examples include:
• Newspapers analyses of sources and “fact checking”..
• The nature (and truth) of headlines.
• Can journalists view facts of a story from a single perspective…probably not.
• Columnists vs journalists... an everlasting battle.
• Newspapers journalists errors and their corrections (with NYT examples past that continue today).
• Do picture editors tell the real story? If a picture is worth a thousand words, pictures in today's NYTs often eliminate 750 words or more. We live in a graphic culture.
Okrant's discussion on first amendment rights regarding newspapers is particularly incisive especially his points about any newspaper's obligations for accuracy and fairness.
Grab a copy of the book on thriftbooks or elsewhere and enjoy the trip back in time that is relevant today.
The New York Times eliminated the Public Editor’s role back on May 31, 2017. Too bad they couldn’t commit to another Okrent.
A few prime examples include:
• Newspapers analyses of sources and “fact checking”..
• The nature (and truth) of headlines.
• Can journalists view facts of a story from a single perspective…probably not.
• Columnists vs journalists... an everlasting battle.
• Newspapers journalists errors and their corrections (with NYT examples past that continue today).
• Do picture editors tell the real story? If a picture is worth a thousand words, pictures in today's NYTs often eliminate 750 words or more. We live in a graphic culture.
Okrant's discussion on first amendment rights regarding newspapers is particularly incisive especially his points about any newspaper's obligations for accuracy and fairness.
Grab a copy of the book on thriftbooks or elsewhere and enjoy the trip back in time that is relevant today.
The New York Times eliminated the Public Editor’s role back on May 31, 2017. Too bad they couldn’t commit to another Okrent.
August 23, 2023
With his wit, humor, and sincere concern for the most important constituent of any newspaper, its readers, Mr. Okrent deftly takes readers into the inner working of modern journalism, with all its intrinsic incongruities, thirst for breaking news, and all the perils that it implies. It's incredible to think that the gold standard for American print journalism (the New York Times) did not have an Ombudsman (or Public Editor) until late 2003, and it's rather unfortunate that it does not have one anymore (they discontinued the position in mid-2017). While certainly dated in the news it brings up, the topics Mr. Okrent covers are timeless when it comes to concerns more readers have about the news they consume and the errors that arise from writing the first draft of history. From granting sources anonymity to the abuse of athoritative quotes, and so much more, Mr. Okrent delivers a hidden lecture on the essential nature of the medias role in our society, and how we are the ultimate benefactors of its product, even as that product is as imperfect as the people who write it.
July 5, 2016
Some of the issues Okrent addresses now feel a bit dated, but it's hard imagine a more important book for anyone interested in journalism and putting together a newspaper (or for that matter, a website). As much as anything, Okrent's experience reminds one just how blind people can be when they're emotionally invested in something. Which makes it impossible for a reasonably "balanced" newspaper like The Times to please more than about 50% of its readers.
February 25, 2015
Chcel som a potreboval som si prečítať túto knihu. Nie je zlá, ale pokiaľ vyslovene nemáte záľubu v čítaní o novinárskej etike a nezaujíma vás atmosféra v redakcii New York Times v rokoch 2003-2004 po afére s Jaysonom Blairom, tak radšej siahnite po inej knihe ;)
August 24, 2014
As a hopeless journalism nerd, I really enjoyed analyzing Okrent's complete body of work as the Times' first public editor.
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June 10, 2015Now probably one of my top 10 favorite journalism books. Prompted partly but not wholly by reader queries, Okrent second-guesses the editors and then second-guesses himself.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews