I talked to two key editors at The Times about the quandary.
It's nice to know that the ombudsman's role is working under your watch, particularly after the failure by two key editors, Bill Keller and Jill Abramson.
He has brought key editors back from 1990 and urged about 60 people, editors and prominent reporters most associated with the old regime, not to come to work "for their own safety".
His key editors in Britain, Andrew Neil at the Sunday Times and Kelvin MacKenzie at the Sun, both typify the Murdoch ethos.They loathe deference and hypocrisy as much as "whingers" and "lily-livered socialists".
Rather, it appears that key editors simply were slow to recognize that the minutes of a high-powered meeting on a life-and-death issue — their authenticity undisputed — probably needed to be assessed in some fashion for readers.
With the errors of Times staffers soon to be tracked newsroom wide, with the help of a new database, Mr. Blair's corner-cutting and sloppiness would have been readily available to key editors.
They'd have a lunch every so often with key editors, and should their company be embroiled in any inconvenient issue, they'd get straight on the phone to the relevant editor, put their side of the story, and attempt to smooth over the problem.
But, he added, he was beginning to see glimmers of interest from a few more stores, and from a few of the key editors, and hoped that more of them would eventually find their way to his showroom, suggesting that not many had made the trek this time.
He is very surprised by tone of the coalition's release (The media alliance opposing the bid called Hunt's green light statement a "complete whitewash") Guardian report | See the emails | See the text message 3.14pm Michel to James Murdoch JH confidential –had 1-hour catch-up today – he called all the key editors last Thursday to explain his decision.
