The business section of today's New York Times carries a news article about the announcement of the retirement of Louis V. Gerstner Jr. as chief executive of IBM. The article contains a pretty thorough rundown of Mr. Gerstner's career. And the article observes that after his retirement, Mr. Gerstner "would seem ideally suited to become a senior adviser to major corporations."
But the Times article somehow omits the fact that Mr. Gerstner served from 1986 to 1997 on the board of the New York Times Company. In that role, according to the 1999 book "The Trust," he clashed with the company's then-chairman, Arthur O. "Punch" Sulzberger. The book reports that Mr. Gerstner's "forceful and frequently biting comments at board meetings had offended Punch and made him uneasy . . .Punch had feared the director's real goal was to commandeer the process, maybe even head the search committee, and use it to effectively strip Punch of his power to name the top nonfamily executive of the company." Is that a sign that Mr. Gerstner is "ideally suited" as a senior adviser to major corporations?
Similarly, an article in the metro section of today's New York Times reports on a debate over a proposed expansion of the Pierpont Morgan Library. Among the architects of the addition is Renzo Piano, who appeared yesterday at a hearing about the plan before the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Times reports. The Times article today somehow omits the fact that Mr. Piano is the architect of the Times Company's planned new headquarters tower. It will be interesting to see the Times architecture critic -- who helped to select Mr. Piano as the architect for the new Times tower -- comment on the Morgan Library controversy.