Posted on 05/13/2003 1:45:57 AM PDT by kattracks
The publisher and top editors of The New York Times issued two new statements yesterday about the fabrications of ex-reporter Jayson Blair even as new questions arose about how Blair was able to slip so many lies into print.Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, executive editor Howell Raines and managing editor Gerald Boyd said they accepted responsibility for a lapse in "organizational safeguards" designed to protect "the trust of our readers and the general public."
Beyond a four-page chronicle of Blair's deceptions that ran Sunday, they promised "a management analysis that will lead to recommendations for improvement" at the battered broadsheet.
In a separate staff memo, Raines said he reviewed files on Blair's career, "and I have absorbed most of that information, along with an awareness that much of it remained in our records rather than in the foreground of our editing process."
The statements followed widespread criticism of The Times, with many commentators saying the top editors got off easy in Sunday's opus.
Ken Auletta, whose media stories in The New Yorker magazine include a 21-page profile of Raines in June, said that although he was impressed by The Times' detailed case against Blair, he still wanted to know more.
In April 2002, for example, Times metropolitan editor Jonathan Landman, aware of Blair's many errors and unprofessional behavior, sent a blunt message to newsroom administrators saying, "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now."
Auletta said: "What happened to that message, and why didn't anyone act on it? I want to know that."
Asked by the Daily News whether Raines, Boyd or any other staffer involved with Blair offered to resign because of the scandal, Sulzberger said no.
"The person who did this is Jayson Blair," he said.
Meanwhile, staffers buzzed about whether Blair's relationship with a woman who is a friend of Raines' wife helped win him favored treatment.
Sources said the woman, Zuza Glowacka, has worked in The Times' photo department.
The Times reported Sunday that Blair, when confronted with a charge of plagiarizing a story about a Texas family, was able to describe their house in detail, possibly because he had seen the paper's "computerized photo archives."
Glowacka, 23, a Polish emigre who could not be reached yesterday, is said to be a friend of Raines' Polish-born wife, Krystyna Stachowiak, whom the editor married in March.
Stachowiak, a former journalist who later worked in public relations, and Glowacka's mother, journalist Ewa Zadrzynska, were among three people who set up "Poland on the Front Page, 1979-1989," a media exhibit in Warsaw last fall.
Raines said through a spokeswoman last night that he never socialized with Blair.
Originally published on May 13, 2003
(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.
Is he an orphan too?
Summer intern 1998
Intermediate reporter 1999
Staff reporter 2001
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?
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.
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.
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