Byron Calame

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Byron Calame (born April 14th, 1939 in Appleton City, Missouri) was the second public editor of the New York Times. He succeeded Daniel Okrent in this ombudsman-like position in 2005, and was followed by Clark Hoyt.^[1] He is a former editor of the Wall Street Journal.

Byron Calame earned a degree in journalism at the University of Missouri and was a member of the Zeta Phi chapter of Beta Theta Pi.

[edit] As Times public editor

Calame's columns have focused on the process by which stories are produced at the Times and have generally been restrained in criticizing the newspaper and its reporters. One exception was his severe criticism of Judith Miller after her controversial decision to go to jail rather than reveal sources of information. His stance on Miller was hotly contested by Miller and her supporters, who contended that Calame was acting more like a management representative than an independent thinker.

On January 1, 2006, Calame reported that New York Times executive editor, Bill Keller, and publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., refused to answer his questions on the timing of the December 16, 2005, story on the leak on National Security Agency classified programs.

Calame's focus on the nuts-and-bolts of newspapering, and the view of some observers that he pulls his punches, has drawn criticism. Jack Shafer, media critic for Slate, contended in a May 2006 commentary that Calame has been a "dreadful" public editor. Shafer asserted that "Calame possesses a mandate that would allow him to boil the journalistic ocean if he so desired, but he usually elects to merely warm a teapot for his readers and pour out thimblefuls of weak chamomile."^[2]

Criticism among conservatives has been especially harsh, with syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin calling Calame "totally worthless."^[3]

On October 22, 2006, Calame published a column saying that the Times was wrong to disclose the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program.^[4]

There were reasons to publish the controversial article, but they were slightly outweighed by two factors to which I gave too little emphasis. While it’s a close call now, as it was then, I don’t think the article should have been published. Those two factors are ... the apparent legality of the program in the United States, and the absence of any evidence that anyone’s private data had actually been misused.

His explanation for his earlier support for publishing was that

I fear I allowed the vicious criticism of The Times by the Bush administration to trigger my instinctive affinity for the underdog and enduring faith in a free press.

Boston Herald columnist Jules Crittenden hailed Calame's column as a "remarkable admission" that "could be the beginnings of an awakening" in the American media.^[5]

On December 31, 2006, Calame published a column that criticized an article in New York Times Magazine by Jack Hitt that was published on April 9, 2006.^[6] The original article was entitled "Pro-Life Nation" and was about the illegality of abortion in El Salvador.^[7] Calame concluded that Hitt's article contained inaccuracies in regard to the criminal case of Carmen Climaco. Hitt had reported that Ms Climaco had received a 30-year jail sentence for having an abortion, but in fact the court concluded that Ms Climaco had strangled her full-term baby after it was delivered, and sentenced her for homicide.

Media offices
Preceded by Daniel Okrent	Public Editor for The New York Times 2005-2007	Succeeded by Clark Hoyt

[edit] References