Fit to Print: A.M. Rosenthal and His Times

Abe Rosenthal, retired executive editor of the New York Times , comes off in this vitriolic portrait as a cussing, bullying tyrant who pushed the paper toward the political right even as he helped rescue it from near-bankruptcy. Rivalries, purges, internal censorship, power plays of Times VIPs, a steady exodus of reportersdirty laundry that wasn't fit to print is hereand then some. Goulden ( The Superlawyers , etc.) claims to have interviewed some 300 current and former Times employees, many of whom remain anonymous though several who are well-known speak on the record. He traces Rosenthal's incarnations: scrawny Jewish kid in the Depression Bronx, hustling cub reporter, whizbang city editor, scowling exec, society lion. Goulden goes for the jugular in a mean-spirited book that is at once an uncanny, explosive portrait of an influential newsman and a sharp analysis of the Times 's conservative drift over the past 10 to 15 years. 50,000 first printing. (October)