The most influential newspaper in the United States, The New York Times, which has been rocked by journalistic fraud by its reporter Jayson Blair came in for more shocks this week when its top two editors suddenly resigned over the scandal. 

The paper’s executive editor, Howell Raines, and its managing editor, Gerald M. Boyd, left on Thursday, a move that surprised many and triggered shockwaves through the newspaper world as only on May 14, the paper’s publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr had said he would not accept the resignation of the two even if they offered to do so.