Shafer on Howell Raines

The Slate media pundit on the upcoming Atlantic Monthly piece by Howell Raines:

There’s enough self-love in Raines’ autobiography to earn it a place in the autoerotica section. By the time Raines stops romancing himself in the public mirror, conjures the last mirage of the glory that could have been, and settles his final grudge, you can only conclude that Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. did readers and Times staffers a service by terminating this vain and cockeyed beast.

That’s what I want on my headstone: “Here lies Mangan, A Vain and Cockeyed Beast.”