From WNYKRs in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. Most media critics, if they believed it would happen at all,

figured it would take a few months, a decent interval before Howell Raines left the helm of the New York Times.

But the Jason Blair scandal, followed by an acrimonious meeting with the staff, the

departure of star reporter Rick Bragg under a cloud, and reports of a disheartened newsroom in

confusion combined, it seems, to make sooner much better than later. So, publisher Arthur

Salzberger, a few weeks after saying he would not accept Reyn's resignation,

received it Thursday with sadness, he said, along with that of managing editor Gerald Boyd.

And Jason Blair released this statement.

I am sorry to hear that more people have fallen in this sequence of events that I had unleashed.

I wish the rolling heads had stopped with mine.

Newsweek media reporter Seth Manukin is one of those who believe that Raines soon would be

shown the door. Seth, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Now, Seth, Jason Blair may have

sparked this sequence of events, but subsequent reporting by people like you suggest that Raines has to

take a lot of the credit for his own demise.

I think that's absolutely true.

And one interesting comparison is looking back at when Janet Cook was caught fabricating a story

that won the Pulitzer for the Washington Post.

Ben Bradley was the editor there at the time.

Obviously, he had been editor for a while and led the paper through the Watergate coverage,

but he also had a reservoir of goodwill in that newsroom.

And one of the things that we've learned in the last month is that Howell Raines not only did not have a reservoir of goodwill, but there

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