Times Bomb [Jayson Blair's inside story, from Newsweek]

Newsweek ^ | May 18, 2003 | Seth Minookin and others

[summer]

Times Bomb

Newsweek

.... As the Times meeting was unfolding, Jayson Blair was holed up in an apartment in Manhattan, talking with his lawyer and his literary agent. The week before, friends say, Blair had checked himself out of Silver Hill, a tony inpatient hospital in New Canaan, Conn., where he had been receiving treatment for a history of alcoholism, cocaine abuse and manic depression, NEWSWEEK has learned. ....

...In a conversation with NEWSWEEK, Blair spoke of his feelings since his career went up in flames: "I can't say anything other than the fact that I feel a range of emotions including guilt, shame, sadness, betrayal, freedom and appreciation for those who have stood by me, been tough on me, and have taken the time to understand that there is a deeper story and not to believe everything they read in the newspapers."...

...But Blair's performance, already spotty, seemed to be getting worse. His personal life also seemed to be spinning out of control. His apartment in Brooklyn was littered with broken furniture and rotting food, his landlord said; there was fungus, and mold. When he moved out in the fall of 2002, the place was in such sordid condition his landlord considered taking him to small-claims court to recoup damages. "It was real filth," the landlord told NEWSWEEK. "Imagine using a bathroom for two-and-a-half years and never cleaning it."

....Within months, Blair was circulating drafts of a book proposal on the sniper story in which he discussed his own anger and frustration as an African-American. "[A friend] encouraged me to look for answers about the history of violence in my own family and that of Lee Malvo [the other sniper suspect], suggesting the search would not be in vain, if it at least ended my restless angst," Blair wrote. Later, he told friends that he identified with Malvo....

[Bonaparte]

"The only things Blair could possibly be hit up for are libel and intellectual property theft."

He defrauded the NYT out of thousands of dollars in travel expenses. He also accepted payment for services not rendered but nonetheless represented as such, which is more fraud.

[S.O.S121.500]

"....I have a preemptive response: go to freaking h*ll."

Lead on....PUTZ.

[Timesink]

He defrauded the NYT out of thousands of dollars in travel expenses. He also accepted payment for services not rendered but nonetheless represented as such, which is more fraud.

There is no way the Times would agree to press charges on either of these points. Not only would it make them look like even bigger jerks than they already do, prosecuting a guy with mental illness for a few thousand bucks' worth of expense account claims, but it would also open them up to being put on trial in open court themselves. Just imagine all the things Blair's lawyer could bring up: Howell Raines's admitted racism ("My Southern guilt probably kept me from firing a black man sooner than I otherwise would have"); their own internal hiring policies ... their REAL hiring policies; not the ones they put in the employee handbook; their unwillingness to accept the obvious signs of Blair's manic depression and act accordingly; on and on. And that would just be in the trial against Blair. He would undoubtedly countersue them, and the fireworks would be ten times worse for the Times' reputation. What's left of it, anyway.

The Times used Jayson Blair as much, if not more, than he used them. They do not want the world to catch on to that fact.

[Dante3]

Of course Blair should not be rewarded.

This all reminds me of the huge book advance given to Hillary. And New Republic's 'Blair' -- Stephen Glass -- was rewarded with a book contract for a fiction novel which sounds from what I've read stupid and not original. Apparently Simon & Schuster just wanted to reward him.

And then there is Chief Moose of the sniper fame -- the one who struggled with the English language. He is suing to get special priviledges denied other law enforcement officers and get his book published well before the trial. Cahtrine Crier and others have pointed to his lack of ethics.

[Bonaparte]

"If Blair was boozing and coking out as well, there is no way in hell his colleagues at work couldn't have noticed that the guy was experiencing severe personal problems."

How many of those colleagues do you suppose are alcoholics themselves? How many of them might be cocaine snorters? These are liberals we're talking about here. They approve of this sort of thing. How often have you seen the NYT editorialize against street drugs and excessive drinking?

[Bonaparte]

Manic depression doesn't even come close to fitting the definition of legal insanity. He might just as well have a groin injury."

Don't think so.

Here is the last paragraph of an article written by an expert in this area.

In all cases, there is uncertainty as to the future dangerousness of an insanity acquittee. Consequently, courts often give a great deal of weight to the defendant's insight. Those who are considering employing the insanity defense for a violent defendant with poor insight into his condition, or for a defendant who meets criteria for Bipolar Disorder, should consider this possibility: the very features of the condition may one day lead to a longer confinement than would have been expected with a criminal conviction.

To view Dr. Welner's credentials, click on his name at the above linked page. Bipolar disorder, especially when the patient is non-compliant with treatment, is known to severely distort mood, judgment and perception. It very often forms the basis for an insanity defense at trial.

No, don't thank me. I'm always happy to help.

[bigfootbob]

1st of all, I am a lifelong non-smoker and I don't have any agenda. I do comment when I see something that attempts to make an issue of smoking, drinking, etc. for political means. That was the case here. You're deluding yourself if you refuse to acknowledge a damage control attempt by the NYT heirarchy.

2nd, if you're so worried about getting flamed by so-called mean spirited pro-smokers, then don't post to these topics, dumb a$$. Have a good evening.

[Tall_Texan]

A cute little addendum:

The News NOT Fit to Print
Jayson Blair isn't the first journalist to deceive readers--and he probably won't be the last. It's no wonder, then, that the profession is struggling with a credibility problem. A brief walk down the Hall of Shame:

.

Yellow Journalism
1890s: Dueling New York publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst sensationalize and manufacture events to sell millions of papers.

.

Stalinist Stooge?
1930s: Walter Duranty, The New York Times Soviet correspondent, ignores the brutality of Stalin's regime, telling readers at one point that no one in Ukraine is starving when, in fact, millions were dying.

.

Blood Bros.
1964: The Times runs a series about a 400-member Harlem gang called the Blood Brothers who were said to be "trained to maim and kill" white people. It's denounced as wildly exaggerated, and the Times admits years later that the story was "hyperbole to a high degree."

.

Red China
1972: The San Francisco Examiner publishes a series on reporter Bob Patterson's undercover travels in China, but learns afterward that Patterson had never left his Hong Kong hotel room.

.

Boogie Down
1976: New York Magazine wows America with the supposedly true story of a Brooklyn disco dancer named Vincent, who serves as the inspiration for John Travolta's hip-swiveling character in the hit movie "Saturday Night Fever." In 1997, however, the writer, Nik Cohn, admits to having fabricated the article.

.

Jimmy's World
1980: Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke writes a heartbreaking account about an 8-year-old heroin addict for which she wins a Pulitzer the following year. Two days after receiving the award, Cooke admits "Jimmy" doesn't exist.

.

Adolf's Tell-All
1983: In late April, the German magazine Stern announces its acquisition of Hitler's diaries and publishes excerpts. London's Sunday Times, NEWSWEEK and others cover the find before discovering in early May that the diaries are a complete hoax.

.

Trading Inside
1985: Wall Street Journal reporter R. Foster Winans is convicted of securities fraud for using info he knew would appear in The WSJ the next day to make money on the stock market. Winans had written the popular "Heard on the Street" column that analysts believed could cause stocks to rise and fall.

.

True Colors
1997: NEWSWEEK's editor, the late Maynard Parker, comes
under fire for publishing items speculating on the author of the book "Primary Colors," when he knew it was written by Joe Klein, then one of his own reporters.

.

The Young and Restless
1998: Stephen Glass, a 25-year-old writer at The New Republic, is fired after his editors find he had fabricated all or parts of 27 of the 41 articles he'd written for the magazine. A few years earlier, Ruth Shalit, another brash young TNR writer, admitted to plagiarizing passages and fabricating facts.

.

Boston Blues
1998: Columnist Mike Barnicle resigns from The Boston Globe amid allegations he had made up sources and facts and stolen material from other writers. Two months earlier another Globe columnist, Patricia Smith, was fired for making up characters and dialogue.

.

Not So Smart
2003: Two reporters from The Salt Lake Tribune are fired after splitting $20,000 from the National Enquirer for help on a July 2, 2002, story that alleged Elizabeth Smart's family was involved in a sex ring. The tabloid has since
retracted the story.

[Bonaparte]

Ok, ok.

Here's another one, this time from Duquesne University School of Law.

"The psychiatric diagnoses most typically associated with a valid insanity defense include schizophrenia and bipolar disorder."

There are scads more of these online. It's just a fact that bipolar affective disorder (manic-depression) often forms the basis for insanity defense at trial.

[Bonaparte]

"There is no way the Times would agree to press charges on either of these points."

I never said they would bring a criminal complaint on these matters or that it would even be advisable to do so -- only that they could if they wanted to. The post to which I was replying excluded them as possibilites. I merely corrected that statement.

Hope this clears things up.

[Bonaparte]

They sure did. People love a juicy scandal and why should the tabs be the only ones to rake in all that dough, especially since the NYT has been having circulation problems in recent years?

[razorback-bert]

A black friend of mine in Houston, once told that he worries taking his daughter to the doctor, is the black doctor, a doctor or a black doctor?

[Publicus]

Why don't the "leaders" of Time-Warner simply fire Case for lying to them and everyone else?

[Grampa Dave]

You are right in that the DemonicRat Orgy at the Wellstone funeral probably cut into their votes across the nations. We do know that it really cost them in Minnesota.

We are seeing a similiar revulsion to the outrageous behaviors shown by Mad Max Waters, Henry Nostralitis Waxman and their grand Kleegle Dirty Byrd re President Bush's landing on the Abraham Lincoln. A lot of moderates who served in the military or have relatives or friends in the military now were/are outraged by the lunatic whining of these three.

I think that we are seeing the implosion of many of the rats since 9/11. The victory in Iraq and GW's popularity will cause more self inflicted implosions between now and the elections in 2004.

[aristeides]

The Name of the Moose .

[Grampa Dave]

You should post this as a free standing thread.

Hidden in this liberal's obvious awe of the NY Slimes are some interesting tidbits and admission of the Slimes virtual 24/7/365 attack on President Bush since he became president.

The author admits that Dowd and Krugman have had a free reign to say anything that they want to about President Bush.

Also, he gets closer to admiting that the Slimes created a target for the hostility against it by making Jayson Blair the evil one.

Please post it as a free standing thread and ping us.

[Grampa Dave]

Shermy, you need to bookmark this article/oped that has just been posted by aristeides.

This is the closest that any article/oped has come to admiting that Jason Blair has been set up as a target by the Slimes to attract attention from management and their head hit artists, Krugman and Dowd.

http://www.economicprincipals.com/issues/03.05.18.html

[bigfootbob]

Lileks on NYT: The Moose is the real story The Bleat (Lileks blog) ^ | 05/19/2003 | James Lileks

Posted on 05/19/2003 7:30 AM PDT by Constitutionalist Conservative

I don’t give a tinker’s fig about Jayson Blair anymore. It doesn’t tell me anything about the culture of the Times I didn’t suspect already. But there are two ancillary issues that bear on the nature of modern culture. "One: the cigarette is now a symbol of shadiness and moral dissolution. Newsweek is running a cover story that features the Confabulator of Longacre Square, and he’s smoking a cigarette. Well, say no more. The guy smokes. What else do you need to know? In a few years the demonization of smoking will be so complete that a movie set in WW2 will feature a chain-smoking Hitler and an abstemious Churchill, just to telegraph to the audience who’s naughty and who’s nice."

Two: adults no longer run the Times. To me the most interesting revelation of l’affair Blair hasn’t been the way a rising star was coddled and cosseted; it’s the Moose. The Beanbag Moose. As I understand the story, some of the Timespersons were on a retreat in a rural conference center. During one of the meetings, a moose wandered into the grounds, and everyone watched him out the window - but no one mentioned him, because it wasn’t germane to the subject of the meeting. This story has become Legend, and has taken on the form of a Beanie Baby, come to enlighten those of us who see the Moose but dare not speak His name. It’s a metaphor, you see. A metaphor for unnoticed mooses. (Anyone who's ever been on one of these retreats knows exactly what would have happened if you'd interrupted a meeting on synergistic strategies to say "hey, how come no one's talking about that big moose out there?" Four words: Monday morning drug test.) Now at the Times if you wish you cut to the quick, you place on the table your company-issued beanbag herbivore to symbolize your desire to speak freely.

Grown-ups do not behave this way. Unless they are running a day care. It’s a cute anecdote for a retreat, but applied to the real world, to the newsroom, is a sign of how infantile management theory has become. The introduction of the moose splits the staff into two groups: the brown-nosers who put the moose on top of their computer monitor and give it seasonal decorations, and the cynics who stuff the damn thing in their bottom drawer next to the employee manual, the healthcare benefits package, and the rest of the crap the company expects you to read. They look at that moose, and think: if I get fired tomorrow, they’ll ask for the moose back. It’s their moose. It ain’t mine. I put this moose up on eBay, I’m going to be covering Trenton zoning meetings for the next ten years. Screw the moose.

There’s probably a secret Times subculture of Moose Abuse. No doubt the Moose has been photographed in a stripper’s cleavage, face down on a bar in a puddle of New Amsterdam lager, sitting in Thompkins Square with an anarchist’s A photoshopped on his chest, standing outside the building with a cigarette in his mouth.

This is what I was talking about yesterday with the exception of Chief Moose. I have an opinion of him also, since I do business in Portland, Oregon where he worked before moving East. This guy hit the nail on the head about him also. I was prescient, huh?

[Zionist Conspirator]

One: the cigarette is now a symbol of shadiness and moral dissolution.

It always has been. That's why children have always been discouraged from smoking and why some religious groups have always condemned it.