The ghost of Jayson will return

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | May 29, 2003 | Jon Carroll

[Timesink]

When I heard about Jayson Blair, the New York Times reporter who was fired for fabricating details of stories, including pretending to be places he'd never been, my first thought was: "This'll happen again."

In fact, I bet it's happening right now. Another wager: I bet it won't be caught. Media organizations are just not set up to deal with information fraud.

[Timesink]

Schadenfreude

This is the New York Times Schadenfreude Ping List. Freepmail me to be added or dropped.

[Grampa Dave]

Jon Carroll is panicked because the SF Gayrhonicle will now be held to the same standards. That will eliminate most of his left wing columns and most of the other BS in the Gayrhonicle.

Then, they will only be able to write articles of gay parades, gay pride and other gay happenings.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Could be happening now.

Could be you.

[Timesink]

Could be you.

Me?

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Jon


However, if the shoe fits.....

[LanPB01]

What a load of excuses and crap! I guess coming from the San Francisco Comical, I shouldn't be surprised. It's NEVER the fault of the peron that's making stuff up. It's the pressure of having to actually do your job. How dare the public expect honesty from reporters!

[Timesink]

However, if the shoe fits.....

Look, all I did was post an editorial.

[Tamzee]

Media organizations are just not set up to deal with information fraud.

Does it ever occur to them that it doesn't have to be dealt with? Just stop using anonymous sources and immediately fire any reporter who is caught making up info, distorting quotes or using sources that they never talked to themselves. Once there are clear lines drawn and an absolute expectation of accountability, fraud will be rare and so costly as to not be worth risking getting caught...

[Cicero]

Oddly enough, the Jayson Blair firestorm has mostly been brought to us by the liberal press. My guess is that it's liberal Schadenfreude: They are delighted to see their snooty, holier-than-thou colleagues at the NY Times get a black eye.

But this article is completely out to lunch. How clintonoid: The problem isn't unprofessional and immoral behavior, the problem is getting caught. What's more, everybody does it. Including Jon Caroll, no doubt. How's your expense account, Jon?

[randog]

Now everyone is overworked. People in electronic news media feel pressure every minute to come up with a new headline, a new angle, a new something. Yes, of course it should be accurate, but more importantly, it should be now.

Translation: "I'm sorry--we just don't have time to produce a quality product." I wonder if the author would be so gracious if the manufacturer of his car gave the same excuse if the wheels spontaneously fell off.

[Helms]

Hey: do you think that all of this will allow us to use the formally and liberally used term-"zeitgeist"- I sure hope so as we are currently fighting a "Kulture War" and like the War Against Terrorism, GWB appears to be doing it battle by battle,
and Conservatism/Neoconservatism may now Copt their language as they have so successfully corrupted language itself.

[Avoiding_Sulla]

Given your screenname, I should think you would've made note of his overworked build-up for The Excuse? :)

• before the 24-hour news cycle.
• deadline pressures,
• there was more time ... to read.
• There was more time for consultation. Now everyone is overworked.
• every minute to come up with a new headline, a new angle, a new something.
• it should be now.
• People in newspapers are overworked too.
• Under the gun,

Underlined are this Establishment apologist's key theme elements designed to impress of with all the time his ilk claims not to have enough of. As if it were not enough, he threatens more of the same tomorrow. :)

The key to unraveling this fraudulent plea is the fact that the N Y Times editors and managers and publisher had more than a year to put a stop to the lies. What a crock. This hack would have you focus on minutes and forget that it the fraud played out over days, weeks, months, quarters. Not a bit of time in there to see the forest of fraud built out of the trees of lies Mr. Carroll? HAH!

[mrustow]

I think most of the criticisms on this thread are mean and petty, considering the tone of the column. After all, the guy admitted that he blames talk radio for everything. That's a sense of irony you almost never get from a lefty.

But you got it right. This is a relatively sophisticated form of damage control. It is fit and proper to talk about the Jayson Blair case as an example of affirmative action, because the facts support such an interpretation, and because Times Executive Editor Howell Raines admitted it to be true. It's that simple. Whether other people engage in knee-jerk explanations, is irrelevant.

[Avoiding_Sulla]

Schadenfreude huh? I think there are much greater concerns afoot here. We FReepers have been witness to a the morphing of Mainstream to Lamestream media right in front of our more gullible friends who want now to know why we were so smart?

I suspect the problems at the N Y Times stems from a denial on the part of Leftist opinion makers that their judgement really is flawed. I think it is evidenced by their chosing to leave Blair in his position and even promote him. Why? Fly on the wall speculation is that Howell Raines is insane in his arrogance that his judgment should not be challenged. As in his censuring his own sportswriters when they disagreed with his editorial persecution of Augusta.

His ire was so feared that it hamstrung his lower editors. Editors sent out urgent memos (such as "Jayson must be stopped"). And his managerial style assured fear of him would quash those memos. And what do you know? Quashed they were.

And for further evidence? His 7000 word mea culpa over the Blair Affair has the appearence of a huge CYA. He played CYA by dumping all the failure on Mr. Blair. After months and months and months of Jayson getting worse and worse and worse, no editors are held accountable? Why? There wasn't enough time. The same BS being shoveled again by Mr. Carroll here.

I think the real answer is obvious. Fear. Fear of more than the ire of Mr. Raines -- which now was no more than excess baggage as the disaster struck home and restored temporary sanity even with Mr. Raines.

It is fear of more disclosure than the bestseller "Bias" could ever hope to have achieved. A disclosure that threatens to implode the entire Leftist domination of media.

You and I know that the truth, for so long, has been so bent out of shape at the New York Times that it finally cracked their dominance. They are no longer, with a straight face, "the newspaper of record." So I really think the following coop de grace threatens. Should any of the editors be held in any way accountable, the Leftist dominated whole house of cards could collapse as each editor took down the next. As goes the Times so does the rest of what remains of Ol' Lamestream.

Of course this scenario is speculative. But so what? It is entirely plausable, especially amongst such a submental and poisonously cynical group as the top lamestream journalists. Such speculation is what the N Y Times and other Leftist media has been inflicting upon every other American institution for almost all my adult life. It's long past time that their chickens came home to roost. ;)