Many analysts are remarking on what a shame it is that con man Jayson Blair has caused the downfall of a Gerald M. Boyd, managing editor of “The New York Times,” the newspaper’s highest ranking African-American. They have it all wrong. Sure, Blair provided the opening for Boyd’s resignation, but the true culprit was Executive Editor Howell Raines, whose imperial management style had alienated most of the staff.

News accounts about the tandem have focused on Raines and have mentioned Boyd only in passing. In fact, Boyd differed with many of Raines approaches, including how he handled the Blair blowup, and was quite vocal in editorial meetings. When speaking with others, however, he has been the loyal soldier, making sure whatever criticisms he had remained within the “Times” family.

Those who seek to depict Gerald Boyd as an appendage of Howell Raines don’t know Gerald Boyd. I do. And I’ve known him throughout his 30-year career, beginning after his graduation from the University of Missouri in Columbia when he joined the staff of the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch,” where I was already a reporter. I also knew his wife at the time, Sheila Rule, now a “Times” recruiter. We lived across the street from one another, played a card game known as “dirty hearts,” and have remained friends over the years.

I had breakfast with Gerald a couple of weeks ago in New York. Although I am editing an anthology on the Jayson Blair fiasco, we were not meeting in a professional capacity. We were meeting as friends; I had called to let Gerald know that I would be in the city and that I wanted to see him.

Without violating any confidences, suffice it to say Gerald was more concerned about the survival of “The New York Times” as an institution than his survival as managing editor. I admit that I didn’t think the scandal would lead to the resignations of the paper’s top two editors, but at the time, Gerald wasn’t so sure.

“You’re going to come out of this alright,” I told him. “You’re going to be fine.” Gerald replied, “I’m not worried about me. I have a wife and son who love me, and that’s what’s most important.”

It’s been hard for me to watch from the sidelines as Gerald’s hard-earned reputation has been sullied. And it must have been doubly so for Gerald and his wife, Robin Stone, who once worked at the “Times.”

What has been particularly galling has been the insinuation that because Gerald is Black, he was Jayson’s journalistic godfather. Or rabbi. Or mentor. Or anything else you want to call it. That’s not the Gerald Boyd I know.

In 1976, Gerald and I had lunch at the Original, a soul food restaurant in North St. Louis. We had been discussing forming an organization of local Black journalists, which became the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists, and decided we wanted to develop a workshop for Black high school students interested in journalism.

I drove Gerald back to City Hall, which was his beat at the time, and sitting in my car, we designed the entire workshop, deciding how it would focus on in-class deadline writing, how we would simulate press conferences, and how we would excite them about our profession. We decided that Gerald would focus on building the organization, which he did as the group’s first president. I became founding director of the St. Louis Minority Journalism Workshop, a position I held (except for the year I served as president of the chapter) from 1977 to 1983, when I left to join the “Chicago Tribune.”

During that period, more than 300 students came through our program. Many of our former students have since become our colleagues. And more important, some of our former students went on to establish and direct similar workshops in other cities.

I dare any commentator who suggests that Gerald is soft on someone because they are Black to interview our former students and ask them if he’s soft on African-Americans.

Ask Ann Scales, a former White House correspondent for the “Boston Globe.” Ask Marcia Davis, a Style section editor at the “Washington Post.” Ask Mark Russell, metropolitan editor of the “Cleveland Plain Dealer.” Ask Andre Jackson, assistant managing editor for business editor of the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch.” Ask Bennie Currie, a reporter for the Associated Press in Chicago. Ask Bennie’s wife, Celeste Garrett, urban affairs editor of the “Chicago Tribune.” Ask Alvin Reid, city editor of the “St. Louis American.” Ask Russ Mitchell, an anchor and correspondent for CBS News. Ask any of the other students. They know that, if anything, he pushes them harder.

We are the people who know Gerald Boyd. Many of those writing about him have no clue about who he is or what he represents.