"There are maybe a dozen good newspapers in the country," Rosenthal told his fellow-journalists. "Most newspapers are bad simply because they are not printing enough news. Publishers are not spending enough money to gather the news. The consumer who would complain about watered milk doesn't complain about a watered newspaper."

Rosenthal cited a survey by the American Newspaper Publishers Association showing that 8 per cent of all newspaper space is devoted to comics and only 2 per cent to foreign news.

After lamenting the lack of openings for young reporters at The Times, Rosenthal said that he personally interviews all new employees. So what kind of people does Rosenthal hire? "I wouldn't hire the greatest writer on earth if I wasn't satisfied as to his character," Rosenthal told the Fellows. To Rosenthal, character means people who are "straight" (honest) and who "will devote their lives to us."

"I demand understanding of what The New York Times is, and if you don't understand it you don't work for the Times," Rosenthal said.

So what is The New York Times? It is a paper with a crankiness for detail that its 800,000-plus readers trust will give them a closer version of the truth than that in any other newspaper.

As the wine began to flow more freely, so did Rosenthal's praise and passion for The Times. At one point he called the city room a mental circus.

"The staff of The Times is our greatest resource," he said. "The truth about the riches of The Times is that when I walk out of my office I'm surrounded by the most interesting people you could imagine, colleagues of such vitality, devotion and character. As a banker friend once said to me, "If you feel that way about your colleagues, then you've got it made."

We'll fight sometimes," Rosenthal said, "but we love each other."

Rising from the dinner table, the top Timesman asked rhetorically whether he had yelled at too many people, and added, "I know I was maudlin, but I really meant it."

And then in a parting flourish, the M.E. declared, "Remember, truth and justice will triumph over all."

***

Rosenthal is the son of a reluctant house painter, a Russian immigrant who was forced to give up fur trapping and trading in Canada and move to the Bronx during the Depression.

"As a teenager, Rosenthal suffered from osteomyelitis, a bone disease, walking at times with crutches or a cane. The disease forced him to drop out of school for two years. After one operation, he was erroneously told he would never walk again, but he regained the use of his legs after treatment as a charity patient at the Mayo clinic.

In 1943, after working on his campus newspaper, Rosenthal became City College correspondent for The Times for $12 a week. Soon--as was customary for neophyte Times reporters in those days--Rosenthal was attending church services and writing brief accounts of the sermons. He was a full-fledged staff member at 21.

In 1946, the young reporter was given the newly-created United Nations as his beat. In the early heyday of the U.N. his stories often reached the prestigious front page.