Free Republic

Send In The Clowns The Jayson Blair story is over. As New York cops might say to crime-scene spectators, ‘Move along, there’s nothing to see.’ I know this, because Times columnist Frank Rich told me so. On June 15 (six-and-a-half weeks after Blair’s resignation), in an essay entitled “15 Minutes Became 5 Weeks,” Rich described the Blair scandal as a “mediathon,” not unlike the coverage of Martha Stewart, for whom Rich suddenly had great sympathy. Rich defined a mediathon as "a relentless hybrid of media circus, soap opera and tabloid journalism we have come to think of as All...

Send in the Clowns The Jayson Blair story is over. As New York cops might say to crime-scene spectators, ‘Move along, there’s nothing to see.’ I know this, because Times columnist Frank Rich told me so. On June 15 (six-and-a-half weeks after Blair’s resignation), in an essay entitled “15 Minutes Became 5 Weeks,” Rich described the Blair scandal as a “mediathon,” not unlike the coverage of Martha Stewart, for whom Rich suddenly had great sympathy. Rich defined a mediathon as "a relentless hybrid of media circus, soap opera and tabloid journalism we have come to think of as All...

On Wednesday last, the head honchos of the New York Times, Pinch, Howell, and Gerald addressed a closed (to the press) meeting of the Times staff at the Loew's Astor theater on Broadway. The Times' media editor, Jacques Steinberg, a member of the press, you see, was forbidden to attend but charged with the responsibility of covering the event for his employer. Ever resourceful, as Timesmen are expected to be, Steinberg relied on notes taken by embedded colleagues and perhaps on secretly made tape recordings for his account of the proceedings. It was published in the Times the following day....