Skip to main content
Racism as a cause for plagiarism?

Questions have been raised in the media about whether Blair had been able to keep working at the Times, despite a record of mistakes, because of his race or connections with top editors. The newspaper, whose managing editor, Gerald Boyd, is black, is trying to diversify its staff. Also, Blair is friendly with a staffer from Poland, home country of editor Howell Raines' wife, raising the specter that he received special treatment.

It seems that the scandal at the New York Times is taking another turn, ostensibly for the worst. Jayson Blair has apologized for his misdeeds to some degree, but blamed substance abuse, race, and personal problems as the cause.

What is indeed strange to me is the way that he is attempting to mass market his improprieties in movie and book deals. He is somewhat put off by the assertions that he was allowed to stay at the NYT because of his race. He tries to liken himself to Stephen Glass, and even made a statement that, "He had fooled some of the most brilliant people in Journalism". In a story in the New York Observer he goes into greater detail. Here is the article. Blair Pitch

I really think that Blair's apologies have fallen way short of their mark. Instead of admitting that he made mistakes and trying to continue on it seems as if he is putting the blame everywhere except for on himself.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Being an Officer...a Black one.....is sometimes hard. [Howard Rollins from "A Soldier's Story"] Sometimes being an Officer is difficult....not because of hard tasks, short timelines, or all of the worries involved in the care of your Soldier's, but the aura of professionalism and objectivity that you must display at all times. There have been many times that I have wanted to make a comment, yell, cuss at someone, or otherwise let my personal feelings be known about a subject, but unfortunately I could not because of my position. Let me tell you about two incidents that bothered me in particular. I was in Dallas Ft. Worth airport waiting to catch a flight on the last leg of my TDY trip to help a returning unit at Ft. Sill. As I went to my gate, I saw 4 Sailors in their black uniforms gathered at the gate...one was large and white, the other three were black. There was very little room, and many of them were standing intermingled with civilian airline passengers...
One day and one half... I just woke up in my hotel room after a night of fun and good times with my wife at 4th Street Live. I glanced out the window, and realized that I was facing the sullen reality that I have today and tomorrow on leave, and that Tuesday means the end of my contact with my family for a great while. I have approached this time on leave with the solid intent of not concentrating on how much time I had left, but rather the quality of the time that I was using. Somehow, it just didn't work like I thought that it would. I have noted that these past two weeks have flown by, much quicker than any other two weeks that I have experienced in my life. If deployment were to go like this, the time wouldn't seem so unbearable. But, nonetheless I suppose that I need to get myself prepared for the inevitable. The reality is that my oldest son Devon who just finished the seventh grade will be starting his Freshman year of High School once I get back. Robbie who just ...
Sometimes I wish I were back..... Back in what is familiar. The sights, the sounds, the stench, the heat, the utter drudgery of Southwest Baghdad. Now that I have been back for over six months I wish that I could go back. I wish I could go back and do it all over. Because maybe if I did something different over there, things would okay over here.....