Remember Gerald Boyd?

He was the African American managing editor of the New York TImes who lost his job in 2003 along with Times editor-in-chief Howell Raines for his alleged mismangement of errant reporter Jayson Blair. In a widely-read article published shortly after Blair was fired for plagiarizing and fabricating stories, Boyd was described as Blair's mentor. The scandal was red meat for critics of newsroom diversity programs, who alleged that Blair had been hired and coddled because of his race.


Now, a year after Boyd's death from lung cancer, a new article from New York magazine reports that Boyd had no such relationship with Blair, and but the two were lumped together because both were black. Writer Jeff Copton reports:

""Like the newshound he was, Boyd traced the sources of these attacks — and was crushed to discover some he’d considered friends. He’d been dismayed by the racism unleashed by the Blair affair, the fish-eyed scrutiny trained on black reporters coast to coast. But to find that he was still an 'affirmative-action baby' after all he’d achieved— that was decimating. Most hurtful of all, Boyd saw no one at the Times standing tall for him in public. He felt disgraced and forsaken.

"I asked more than a dozen current and former Times people about Boyd’s personal relationship with Blair, and they all agreed: There was none. . . . The portrayal of Gerald Boyd as Blair’s godfather, in sum, was a crude case of racial profiling. In its virulence and indignation, it reprised the old fury over Max Frankel’s aborted quota—the lurking conviction that black people didn’t belong at the Times, and surely not so close to the throne."

The new story comes as another major news organization, CNN is facing an employment discrimination suit from a former anchor who alleged that she was fired to make room for journalists of color. R. Robin McDonald of Law.com writes:

"CNN's attorney has argued that, regardless of its diversity objectives, it hires and fires primarily on the basis of talent. The network says it didn't renew the contract of roving anchor Marina Kolbe in 2003 because she didn't measure up to its standards for on-air talent, not because she was white.

"Internal CNN memos introduced at a federal trial this week suggest that, beginning in 1999, in some cases a job candidate's race and ethnicity were key factors in hiring on-air talent.

"One memo also revealed a push by CNN to hire "younger, more attractive anchors" to draw younger audiences in what was fast becoming a highly competitive 24-hour news environment."

News organizations first began committing themselves to diversifying their staffs in the early 1970s, after a presidential commission examining the causes of the riots of the 1960s identified a biased news media as part of the problem. Thirty years later, news organizations struggle to sustain staffs that reflect the diversity of the communities they serve -- a task made more difficult by the ongoing upheaval in the industry.

As part of the first wave of African American journalists to enter senior management positions in mainstream news organizations, Boyd led the New York TImes' effort to illuminate the United States' complex, rapidly evolving racial and cultural landscape. Most notably, he spearheaded the Puliter-Prize winning series, How Race is Lived in America.. The series, which the Pulitzer judges called "compelling and memorable", traced the outlines of racial consciousness in the daily interactions of diverse groups of Americans around the country.

At Poynter.Org, columnist Gtregory Favre argues that diversity still matters:

" Mark Trahant, editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a longtime champion for diversity, told me recently, 'Many diverse groups have opted out, creating their own space on the Internet that is rather exclusive. What are the implications of that? What are the implications for democracy?'

"And as Mark pointed out, the Hutchins Commission Report 60 years ago talked of its fear that isolated groups of Americans wouldn't have a communication bridge to other isolated groups. Sounds as if that could happen."

If we are to avoid such a future, we need talented and committed journalists whose reporting will help us understand each other across lines of difference. During a 30-year career in the field, Boyd proved to be one of those people. Today's professional and citizen journalists can learn a great deal from his example.