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New York Times Describes Deception by Ex - Staffer
May 11, 2003
By REUTERS
Filed at 5:20 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times on Sunday published
a lengthy, unprecedented article detailing widespread
deception by a former reporter, despite repeated warnings
by editors, in what the publisher called ``a huge black
eye'' for the highly regarded newspaper.
Reporter Jayson Blair, 27, pretended to write stories from
out of town when he was at home in New York, fabricated
quotes and plagiarized from other newspapers, the Times
said in the nearly 14,000-word article published on more
than four pages.
The falsehoods were first revealed after a Texas newspaper
complained that Blair had copied parts of one of its
stories. Blair resigned this month after nearly four years
at the paper.
The Times inquiry found ``new problems'' in about half of
the 73 articles Blair had written since October. Among the
most glaring were his apparently falsified visits to the
home of former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch, who was
captured in Iraq, and to wounded Marines in a Navy
hospital.
The article said Times editors, including Jim Roberts, the
paper's national editor, had warned of Blair's failings. It
cited an e-mail in April 2002 by the metropolitan editor,
Jonathan Landman, who wrote: ``We have to stop Jayson from
writing for the Times. Right now.''
When Blair was moved to the prestigious national desk last
fall, Landman said in the article: ``Nobody was asking my
opinion. What I thought was on the record abundantly.''
The newspaper's publisher said in the article that there
would be no effort to name scapegoats.
``It's a huge black eye,'' the article quoted Arthur
Sulzberger Jr. as saying. ``The person who did this is
Jayson Blair. Let's not begin to demonize our executives --
either the desk editors or the executive editor or, I dare
say, the publisher.''
Executive Editor Howell Raines said the Blair affair was a
``terrible mistake'' and he planned to assemble a task
force to identify lessons to be learned from the case.
The newspaper said the investigation was continuing, since
spot checks of more than 600 articles Blair wrote before
October also show apparent fabrications. It published an
e-mail address -- retrace+nytimes.com -- for readers to
report problems with Blair's work.
Blair has not spoken publicly since the scandal broke, and
several friends say they have not heard from him.
The Times article said the length of the deception was due
in part to ``a failure of communication among senior
editors'' as well as few complaints from Blair's subjects
and his methods of covering his tracks.
Blair pretended to travel, while telephone records showed
he was at home. He claimed out-of-town expenses, yet his
receipts showed purchases made in New York, the newspaper
said. At least twice, Blair wrote stories claiming to be
out of town when telephone and computer records showed he
was at his desk in New York, it said.
The trouble is not the first for The New York Times, which
is widely considered to be a gold standard in journalism,
although it may be the most extensive. Several years ago
freelance writer Michael Finkel admitted that a story he
wrote for the Times Sunday magazine in 2001 about a West
African boy sold into slavery was based on a composite.
The Blair scandal is also not the first in American
journalism. Five years ago, The New Republic fired staffer
Stephen Glass after it discovered falsehoods in most of
what he had written. In 1981, Washington Post reporter
Janet Cooke won a Pulitzer Prize for writing about an
8-year-old drug addict but returned the prize after
admitting she had invented him.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-media-times.html?ex=1053783426&ei=1&en=a615c1105c33640c
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