In Howard Kurtz’s Washington Post review of “My Times in Black and White” by former New York Times managing editor Gerald Boyd, Kurtz acknowledges that an ombudsman in the newsroom helps change the kind of atmosphere in which cheating journalists like Jayson Blair can thrive.
“The Times has changed that atmosphere under Bill Keller’s editorship, and the existence of a public editor — an outgrowth of the Blair scandal — provides an important safety valve,” Kurtz writes.