From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone. And I'm Bob Garfield. For more than a

century, the New York Times has been reporting the news without fear or favor worldwide. For the past

three and a half years, much more often than it would like, the Times has also become the news

in one journalistic scandal and misstep after another.

Author Seth Mnuchin, who covered the paper for Newsweek magazine during this turbulent period,

believes he's found the source of the problem, which he identifies in his new book,

Hard News, The Scandals at the New York Times, and their meaning for American media.

He joins us now. Seth, welcome back to OTP.T.M.

Thank you for having me. Well, let's review for a moment some of the bad things that happened at the

New York Times over a period of about two years. Young reporter Jason Blair was caught fabricating

at least 36 stories in the national section. Feature writer Rick Bragg was caught doing very

colorful descriptions of people and places he barely visited, relying on notes from uncredited stringers.

Judith Miller was outed as an uncritical purveyor of Ahmad Chalabi since discredited intelligence

about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Now, if your book

has a central premise, it's that these events are not isolated, that they were rooted in one central

problem. And that problem was named. I think you're getting to Haller Raines and his leadership.

He took over the paper the week before September 11, 2001,

and then his tenure lasted until June 2003 when he was fired in the wake of Jason Blair.

Your book so indicts, Raines, Reins, for arrogance, egotism, narcissism.

Could it possibly be so simple?

And could he possibly have been so bad at his job?

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