[summer]

Inquiring minds want to know...

Here's what I want to know, as Jayson Blair came from a two parent home, and his mom was a teacher: Did his parents know he had these addiction problems? And, did they know he failed to get a diploma from college -- yet, he was working at the NYT? I am curious about these matters, as I would expect a parent who is a teacher to be somewhat interested in attending her son's graduation ceremony at college, and/or getting a frame for his diploma and hanging it on the wall at home.

[aristeides]

The father, who's an inspector general at the Smithsonian, refused to comment on his son.

[george wythe]

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,

Several Freepers had alluded to the possibility that Blair was using cocaine. Now it's confirmed.

Unable to locate his own boundaries, Blair tried to become like the people around him. Writing about sexual abuse, he claimed he himself was a victim. “When the shuttle blew up, he said his dad worked at NASA,” said one Times reporter. “When [Gov. George] Ryan pardoned all the prisoners on death row in Illinois, [Blair] said he had a relative on death row. He said he had a cousin in the Pentagon. And when Howell married a Polish woman, Jayson found a Polish girlfriend.”

So many red flags, so many lapses from management. His behavior seems a cry for help ignored by his powerful bosses.