on Jul 22nd, 2006How Much is that Loss in the Window?
When you walk by a pet store and see that doggy in the window, does it make you pause and wonder what if…what if I simply walked in and bought that abandoned dog and took it home and fed it and played with it and just plain loved it. Would it love me back?
Howell Raines, the former New York Times’ editor who lost his job, may as well be that doggy in the window. But rather than wait for a new owner to come along, he busted out of the store and found a new home on his own. Cheers, mate! Go step in it, corporate America.
“I think loss is the most universal human experience,” Raines said of his exit from journalism and The New York Times in 2003. But his book is an exploration of “what you do with an event that’s irreversible, and how you decide if it’s a dead end or a doorway.”
While he had indeed lost something important, he realized how expendable his editorship was: It was just a job. He could start over as an author.
Raines reflects on journalism, loss and lawyers
Former New York Times editor tells Aspen audience: It was just a job
By Greg Schreier
The Aspen Times, July 21, 2006