Bad News Blair saga at Times

New York Daily News ^ | 5/13/03 | PAUL D. COLFORD

[TaxRelief]

Liberal Business Management
Instruction Manual

Chapter 4: Dealing With Public Exposure of Illicit Activity

(Above all, do not panic. These issues are quickly put to bed by following the following game plan.)

Stage 1: Communicating with public following release of classified info.

Call a large conference and share with the audience the following:

1.) State that you recognize that strategy is important.
2.) State that The Company has developed a 5- to 12-step plan.
3.) State emphatically that the plan will work.
4.) Be sure to emphasize that the Company has consulted the best "experts".
5.) State in a business-like manner that you have fired the "fall" guys.

Stage 2: Action Items (Do not read this list at press release conference.)

After you lay out the "plan":

1.) Call your buddies in another town to set up jobs for "fall" guys.
2.) In all communications, refer constantly to the various step numbers of the "plan".
3.) Have consultants visit regularly to host "workshops".
4.) Wait for the heat to die down.
5.) Go back to business as usual, but be more careful about getting caught in future.

[Bonaparte]

Wow! You are truly on your game, aristeides. Together with the information you unearthed here, this goes a long way toward explaining this odd episode at the NYT. The picture that seems to be emerging is one of cronyism, pecking order and possibly "incestuous" elements resulting in "colored" judgement. My guess at this point is that Blair is something of a "player" and that Zuza may know just how he was spending his time when he was supposed to be developing background for his stories. What a bunch of pikers.

[aristeides]

There's more: Blair says he was a victim of sexual abuse.

[Bonaparte]

Oh, man...

Is he an orphan too?

[aristeides]

Come to think of it, I haven't heard anything about his parents or family.

[N. Theknow]

Obviously there is "no controlling legal authority" at the Times.

[Bonaparte]

He penned that article when he was 22 or 23, and it's clear that the man can't write. A competent editor's blue pencil would have been worn to a nub.

[aristeides]

And at that time Blair was already, what, a year on the job at the NYT?

[aristeides]

L' affaire Blair.

[Bonaparte]

Correct.

Summer intern 1998
Intermediate reporter 1999
Staff reporter 2001

[Bonaparte]

"...while Blair was sipping lattes in Brooklyn."

With Zuza?

"...running up a hefty bar tab on the company account."

An impaired orphan! He just needs some counseling.

Says managing editor Gerald Boyd: “To say now that [Blair’s] promotion was about diversity in my view doesn’t begin to capture what was going on.”

From what you've discovered, I'd say Boyd isn't far from the mark here.

[miss marmelstein]

Why malign tabs?

[Tamzee]

Good points about the tabloids...

I guess I'll just call the NYT as I use it, guinea pig fluff ;-)

[aristeides]

I very much doubt that what Blair was sipping in Brooklyn was latte.

[aristeides]

Boyd Says Some at 'NY Times' Are Scared : Diversity and Career Tracks Could Be Casualties .

[Bonaparte]

"...ethical miscues..."

Gotta love it. Hey, mistakes were made. It was just a slip when JB ran up his personal liquor tab on the NYT's dime or submitted travel reimbursement claims for trips he'd never taken. Can you remember what city you were in last week? Or why you were there? Didn't think so. And who remembers that an employer is generally not responsible for supporting an employee's drinking habit? Right. How is anybody gonna keep all that extraneous trivia in his head?

[Bonaparte]

BTW, are you as curious as I am about which saloons JB frequented -- what kinds of establishments these were?

[Dolphy]

Boyd Says Some at 'NY Times' Are Scared : Diversity and Career Tracks Could Be Casualties

What a bunch of nonsense. Any self respecting journalist would be happy to see Blair's tenure come to an end. What hard working, honest person enjoys the success, or shall I say lack of consequences, for a liar and cheat in their company? This is especially true when his failings are known among at least some in the company. If some are scared at the NY Times one can only conclude that they fear that honesty and integrity will now be a clear standard of employment.

The more I see the Times refer to diversity, almost trying to paint themselves as a victim of their own good intentions, the more I know this had nothing to do with Blair's rise and fall. In fact I think only a racist would think that Blair's shortcoming had to be tolerated as if that was the best he could do and the best of what blacks had to offer the world of journalism.

[tgslTakoma]

I read that Diamondback article, and have looked at some other things I found at the Diamondback when I did a search on Blair. Interesting stuff... a letter to the editor complained that Blair (as editor, IIRC) had outed who he decided was the author of an "anti-homosexual" column which had been published and attributed to a nom de plume. And another letter to the editor complained of grade-school grammatical errors in the Diamondback while under Blair's editorship.

There were something like 96 hits in the search I did, and I only skimmed through them. There may be more weird stuff to be found there; but I've been pressed for time and haven't gotten back to the digging around there.