Jayson Blair, New York Times Pioneers in Ethical Diversity

ridiculopathy ^

[Sir Gawain]

>>Wednesday May 14, 2003

Jayson Blair, New York Times Pioneers in Ethical Diversity

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK- For decades now groups have worked with industry and government to adjust hiring practices in an effort to make the country's political, educational, and media institutions look like America. Nowhere has the pressure to embrace diversity been so strong as in America's newsrooms. In fact, so much attention has been paid to the skin color, gender, and sexual preferences of various reporters and editors that other areas of diversity have gone largely unnoticed. The New York Times took a bold step recently, hiring 27-year-old reporter Jayson Blair in an effort to enhance the media organization's ethical diversity.

According to recent employment data, Unethical Americans are grossly underrepresented in the print media. This, in spite of the fact that in most other fields Unethical Americans do quite well. For example, boards of directors for most American corporations are made up almost exclusively of people just like Blair.

While they may rule the roost on television news [most notably Fox News Channel], efforts to create an ethically diverse staff at major newspapers has been an uphill battle. Try as they might, ethically challenged applicants seem to bump into an invisible Lucite ceiling in the newspaper business.

Times editors say they hope Blair's example will open the door for other Unethical Americans to enter the print side of the news business.

"Blair was like a breath of fresh air around here," said NYT metro editor Jonathan Landman. "While most reporters waste half their day calling second and third sources for confirmation. But Blair is just making crap up, making him much more efficient. Plus, he's a joy to have around."

Everyone who knows Blair described him as an extremely creative writer, a team player. By not actually going to the cities where he filed the fabricated stories, he saved the ailing paper thousands in travel expenses.

Blair was also fond of inserting hidden games in his stories, something to keep his readers on their toes. One of his favorites was something called "who am I actually quoting?" where he would mix and match quotes lifted from other stories in his own. Is that really rescued POW Jessica Lynch talking about "having sex whenever I want to" or is it actress Brittany Murphy about her recent breakup with costar Ashton Kutcher?

If you guessed Ms. Murphy, you win.

Over the past few months, Blair's whimsical posers have become more popular than the paper's own crossword puzzle.

Unfortunately, Blair's position at The Times did not sit well with everyone. Earlier this year, a group of bigoted readers became aware of Blair's status and requested that editors remove him from the staff. Courageously, The Old Grey Lady stood by her man, refusing to fire him or even correct his bogus stories.

"Some say that Blair's presence here diminishes our organization, and it sickens me to hear that," said Times executive editor Howell Raines. "I look forward to a day when people will no longer judge people by the content of their character but by how they can attract readership."

Sadly, news came late yesterday that Blair has accepted another position and will shortly be moving on. While staffers say he will be sorely missed, the paper is reportedly not worried about sliding back into a non-diverse workplace.

Far from the token Unethical American on the staff, Blair says that he is one of many of his kind at The Times., though he declined to violate confidentiality and name them.

Diversity activists, says Raines, have nothing to worry about.

--Mark Arenz

[Sir Gawain]

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[Gabz]

What a hoot!!!!!!!!

[AgThorn]

Was the following the last "piece" written by Jayson Blair? Interesting that it's pursueing affirmative action "racial recognition in comic books". may be a collectors item!! Wonder how many "distortions" are to be found in its writing ... ;-)

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X-Ray Vision Needed to Find Black Superheroes

By JAYSON BLAIR
The New York Times - May 5, 2002

THINK of comic book heroes, and perhaps you conjure thoughts of Superman flying over Metropolis or Batman and Robin speeding out of their cave. And of course, Hollywood investors and comic book enthusiasts likely have Spider-Man on their minds this weekend, as the web-slinger hits the big screen.

But as the media world focuses on Peter Parker, the fictional photojournalist-cum-superhero created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, lesser-known artists and writers have unveiled a new hero unlike any of the others who have recently made it big.

This hero has superpowers. He has a normal life apart from his supernatural one. And, yes, he is busy saving the world. What he does not have, however, is white skin.

The WitchDoctor (a k a Dr. Jovan Carrington), uses voodoo lore and supernatural vision to uncover his African ancestry, confront racial stereotypes and, in his free time, come down hard on the bad guys. He has also entered a world that has traditionally underrepresented - or even misrepresented blacks. The character made his debut earlier this year in a book by the independent comic company Griot Enterprises, and is the creation of the Detroit illustrator, Kenjji. (The artist says he dropped his surname because of its connection to slavery.) The WitchDoctor is not the first black comic book hero, but history dictates that success is by no means a given.

"I collected comics as a kid, but I was constantly disappointed by the fact that I did not find myself represented," Kenjji said. "This is a project for the people in the projects, something for the disenfranchised."

The most successful recent black hero is Blade, the half-human, half-vampire character made popular by Wesley Snipes in the movies "Blade" and "Blade II." But Blade was actually born back in 1973, and was only re-released as a comic book after the success at the box office. (Mr. Snipes is now pushing for a film based on another 1970's black hero, the Black Panther.)

But just why, despite decades of racial progress, have black characters failed to flourish in comic culture - much less become film and television heroes?

"In the 1970's, the two major comic book publishing companies, D.C. Comics and Marvel Comics, both tried to create legitimate black superhero characters," Jeffrey A. Brown, a professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University, wrote in , "Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics and Their Fans" (University Press of Mississippi: 2000). "Both companies failed to achieve any long-lasting success because their black characters were too closely identified with the blackploitation films of the era."

MORE recently, Milestone Comics began publishing black-oriented books written and designed by blacks. Milestone, however, failed, and Professor Brown suggests in his book that comic store owners were too well aware that their readers were young white males, and so were reticent to purchase large quantities of Milestone titles. They were, he said, convinced that Milestone's characters - nonstereotypical minorities - simply would not play well in Peoria. For that reason, most black heroes who aren't raw stereotypes have generally had to accept roles as lesser heroes and bit players in established comic storylines.

Of course, as Omar Bilal, a Bowie, Md., graphic artist who is curator of the Web site blacksuperhero.com, points out, characters that do exploit black stereotypes anger black audiences - as happened when Marvel recently announced plans to re-release a book based on Luke Cage, a drugs-and-guns blaxploitation classic.

But Mr. Bilal says the lack of success for black comic heroes goes beyond stereotyping and may simply be a function of the same cultural turn that still prompts many minority children to crave white dolls and white images. Some blacks, Mr. Bilal suggests, simply do not identify with black heroes. He points to the phenomenon described in Toni Morrison's best-selling book, "The Bluest Eye," in which a young black girl prays every night for blue eyes because then everything would be different: she would be pretty, her parents would stop fighting, her father would stop drinking and her brother would stop running away.

"It does something if you don't see yourself in a book about heroes," Mr. Bilal said. "Even as a kid, if you don't read the words, you see the pictures."

[AgThorn]

[link]
Is this the "guy" who is guilty of promoting the likes of Jayson Blair? Since Blair is nominating him for this "recognition", I think it's a good bet that Gerald Boyd may have been Blair's "mentor" and more ...

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Journalist of the Year
GERALD BOYD
Nominated by Jayson Blair

Gerald Boyd, deputy managing editor/news at The New York Times, was nominated for his role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning series, "How Race Is Lived in America." Boyd became deputy managing editor at The Times in 1997 after having served as an assistant managing editor since 1993. He joined The Times in 1983, quickly becoming a member of its 1984 political team, and then a White House correspondent. Boyd joined The Times following a 10-year career at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Born in St. Louis in 1950, he attended the University of Missouri. In 1977, he founded the St. Louis Association of Black Journalists and served as its first president. One of the group’s projects, which he initiated, was a seven-week journalism workshop for high school students.
Awarded to an African American journalist who has distinguished himself or herself with a body of work, a story, series or photographs published or aired during the period of eligibility that was extraordinary in depth, scope or significance to African Americans or the African Diaspora. Previous Journalist of the Year winners may be nominated again for work he or she did during the eligibility period.

[Tymesup]

I got a call at 9 this morning from the NY Times offering me 1/2 price home delivery. I said to Willie, who sounded like an African American, "You guys have been in the news lately, haven't you?" He ignored this and went on with his spiel, so I told him I couldn't trust them. At that point, he gave up. Let's hope Willie takes this up with his colleagues.