College for Criminals
What Gov. Cuomo’s botched prison education effort says about our society.
By Bill Keller
Bill Keller was executive editor of The New York Times from 2003 to 2011 and was an Op-Ed columnist from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2011 to 2014.
From July 2003 until September 2011, he was the executive editor of The Times, presiding over the newsroom during a time of journalistic distinction, economic challenge, and transformation. During his eight years in that role, The Times sustained and built its formidable newsgathering staff, winning 18 Pulitzer Prizes, and expanded its audience by mastering the journalistic potential of the Internet. The newsroom also participated in the creation of a digital subscription plan to help secure the company’s economic future.
Mr. Keller was succeeded by Jill Abramson, a former investigative reporter and Washington bureau chief who had been one of his two top deputies since 2003.
Before becoming executive editor, Mr. Keller had spent two years as a senior writer for The New York Times Magazine and an Op-Ed columnist. He served as managing editor from 1997 to September 2001 after having been the newspaper’s foreign editor from June 1995 to 1997.
As chief of The Times bureau in Johannesburg from April 1992 until May 1995, he covered the end of white rule in South Africa.
From December 1986 to October 1991, Mr. Keller was a Times correspondent in Moscow, reporting on the easing and ultimate collapse of Communist rule and the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 1989, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage.
Mr. Keller joined The New York Times in 1984 as a domestic correspondent based in the Washington bureau, reporting variously on labor, agriculture and military affairs.
Before coming to The Times, Mr. Keller was a reporter for The Dallas Times Herald, the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report in Washington and The Portland Oregonian.
Mr. Keller graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. degree in 1970 and is a member of the college’s board of trustees.
He is the author of “The Tree Shaker: The Story of Nelson Mandela,” published in January, 2008, by Kingfisher.
What Gov. Cuomo’s botched prison education effort says about our society.
By Bill Keller
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