A Firing Offense

That they do not call for Kofi's resignation is also interesting. The Times itself moved quickly to change executive editors when it was found that a reporter, Jayson Blair, had fabricated stories. Yet Oil-for-Food, even at the level that it is currently understood, is far worse than a few made up tales. It concerns mass thievery, the starvation of children and the very nature of Security Council decision-making leading up to war. If this isn't a firing-offense, what is?

It is interesting that the Times goes out of its way to avoid calling for Kofi's resignation despite the mountains of circumstantial evidence that he was up to his neck in the corruption, and did nothing about it. As Roger notes, the Times fired its editor in chief for a single journalist fabricating stories that the editors failed to catch. Of course, that took a near mutiny in the newsroom to accomplish the editor switch, but the UN situation is far worse.

Under what circumstances would the Times demand that Kofi step down - that way we'll know its boundaries.