Part: 1234         Session: 12345         Page 422423424425426427428429430431432433434435436437438439440441442443444445446447448449450451452453454455456457458459460461462463464465466467468469470471472 of 512

again from the memo, with some omissions, but essentially this is what the memo said -- “Frankel came to my office to discuss the situation generally. We had a very cordial conversation, in the course of which he specifically said that he preferred not to discuss the details of personnel, and I responded that of course I understood that it was too soon to get into that now, but that later on in the year, as the time for his takeover approached, I thought it would be a good idea for him to meet my own associates here, particularly those whom he didn't know, and that I would help and advise him as to their respective merits and demerits in any way I could. The whole tone of the conversation on both our parts was to make the transition as easy, painless, and sensible as possible.” And so on. That's the end of what I've read from the memo.

And then it was not until about a week later, and here I'm briefing up, again, further from the memo, written, as you know, at the time. It was not until about a week later, the week of April 18th, my memo says, “it was not until about this time that I began to get some inkling that a major turnover in the editorial board was being contemplated by the publisher and Frankel, without any real discussion with me on this subject whatsoever.” Obviously, I knew that there would be some changes in the Editorial Board when Frankel took over next January, but I didn't expect him to start wading in, with full backing of the publisher, destroying half my staff six months ahead of time - and behind my back at that.

I soon discovered that the publisher was just about to send -- if he hadn't done it already -- to the new managing editor of the Times [Rosenthal] a list of names of members of the editorial board, for whom he was requesting transfer to the news department, and that list, as it turned out, included one, two, three, four, five, six, seven members of my editorial board. There were only three or four who were not listed. Worst of all these projected forcible transfers of half or