How Many Other Made-Up Stories Has the New York Times Published?

You have probably heard about the resignation last week of NYT reporter Jayson Blair after it was discovered that he had substantially plagiarized an article from another newspaper.

The Washington City Paper has a lengthy and very interesting article by Erik Wemple and Josh Levin on Blair's coverage of the Beltway Sniper incident in the wake of the arrest of the two suspects. It seems that Blair simply made up some significant aspects of what he reported.

And, while others in the Blogosphere have been speculating that Blair was hired so quickly and retained so long, despite a miserable record of errors, because he is black — which still does not seem unlikely to me — one can gather from the WCP story that Blair is an extraordinary schmoozer (as we would say around here), which may account for his career-tenacity, at least in part.

The story is also a fascinating look at the personal professional rivalry among newspapers. It does not paint a very flattering picture of journalism and journalists.

(Thanks, MM.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 05/07/03 03:02:09 PM
Categorized as Media.