According to Howell Raines there's a silver lining to every stormy, career-ending, industry-shaking, confidence-shattering cloud.

Five years after the NYT's Jayson Blair scandal came to light — Blair, then a young reporter at the Times, was discovered to have plagiarized a number of his stories — former Times Executive Editor says that, actually, looking back, the whole thing may have turned out to be good for journalistic standards everywhere.

"I am proud of the fact that it set the standard for in-house inquiries...I feel proud of the fact that we had as close to a full investigation as any journalistic entity has done in my experience.

The scandal brought about the resignation of both Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd and was arguably the beginning of a dark period for the "paper of record" that later saw the downfall of Judith Miller. These days Raines is focused on his Portfolio column and his "passion" for raising dogs.

On the personal side, I have no anger or bitterness. The result has been five very interesting and productive years.

There's something to be said for always looking on the bright side.