NYT Editor Andy Rosenthal Discusses Iraq, Times Select, Father's Secret Past

Andy Rosenthal was named editor of the editorial page of the New York Times last January. He is the youngest of three boys. He was the only son whom his father, Abe Rosenthal, was determined to turn into a journalist, a process that began when they started going on reporting trips together when Andy was six. In 1964, he won the third-grade spelling bee at Public School 183 in Manhattan, on the word "necessary." He was the Moscow bureau chief for the Associated Press before joining the Times in 1987, immediately after his father retired as executive editor. I met him in his office in the Times's new Renzo Piano-designed headquarters on Eighth Avenue. His office is decorated with a series of striking color photos that Andy shot and printed himself. Then we decamped to the cafeteria to discuss Iraq, famous fathers, and the craziness that afflicts everyone who becomes executive editor--a job he insists (implausibly) that he does not aspire to.

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