Jayson Blair says NYT still lax

CNN ^ | 4/10/04

[martin_fierro]

Jayson Blair says NYT still lax

(CNN) -- Jayson Blair, the former New York Times reporter who started a scandal that prompted the resignation of the newspaper's two top editors, said Tuesday on CNN's "Larry King Live" that "there are these journalist war criminals still at the New York Times that have not been caught."

Blair resigned from the Times on May 1, 2003, after a Texas newspaper questioned whether he had plagiarized its article about the family of a soldier missing in Iraq.

Blair's book, "Burning Down My Masters' House," released last Saturday, details how he faked trips to San Antonio, Texas, and elsewhere while writing front page stories from his Brooklyn apartment for one the nation's most prestigious newspapers.

Blair said he describes in his book several instances when Times reporters duped the paper in similar fashion as he did.

In one instance, Blair said a New York Times reporter dressed as a nurse to gain access to a plane crash.

Another reporter spent the day on the National Mall in Washington but filed a story with a Baltimore, Maryland, dateline, he said.

Despite the newspaper's many changes in policy, Blair said he does not believe the Times has done enough to keep reporters from lying to editors and readers.

"There's nothing that they've done that would prevent another Jayson Blair," he said in the CNN interview.

In a statement issued before Blair's interview with King, the Times said it would not respond to Blair's book or his allegations.

"The author is an admitted fabricator... We don't intend to respond to Jayson or his book," the statement said.

In his book, Blair said he also provides insight into why he fabricated the stories.

He blames drug and alcohol addiction, undiagnosed manic-depressive disorder and the pressure of being a young, black reporter at a large, competitive newspaper. Blair was 27 when he resigned.

He was hired at the Times under a program designed, in part, to attract more racial diversity to the newspaper.

Some critics have questioned whether editors overlooked Blair's faulty work to protect a black reporter on a fast track to success.

Times Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd resigned last summer amid such criticism.

Blair said he is unsure how large of a role race was in the scandal.

"Race for every African-American, man or woman -- you can't really separate race from your experience," Blair said on the CNN program.

"You face racism in small and large ways. It's hard to say what role race really played in my case."

As he does in his book, Blair doled out excuses and explanations, but was also apologetic.

"I am immensely contrite. And I'm sorry for the damage I've done," he said in the CNN interview.

"Some people it seems to me would like for me to crawl in a hole and disappear forever. That's just not in my nature."

[martin_fierro]

Jayson Blair, the former New York Times reporter who started a scandal that prompted the resignation of the newspaper's two top editors, said Tuesday on CNN's "Larry King Live" that "there are these journalist war criminals still at the New York Times that have not been caught."

Imagine my shock.

[martin_fierro]

Schadenping.

[Mears]

Why is the media even bothering with this psychopathic liar?

Free publicity for his book,which I'm sure is a fine work of fiction.

[beckett]

Clammy skin, soft tremulous hands, the purple lips of a heavy boozer, the insecure air of a guy in crisis. He is totally non-credible. His bosses at the NYT should have been able to see what a walking timebomb he was. Some guys very plainly give off the crisis vibe and he's one of them.