Jayson Blair

[Baker]

I'm surprised there haven't been any threads on Jayson Blair that plagiarized or fabricated material in at least three dozen articles.


On Sunday, the New York Times ran more than four full pages purporting to document and atone for the Blair frauds. But rather than coming clean about the Blair case, the Times has chosen to deny its central plot line: the risks of letting the mission of racial diversity trump professional standards. The Times portrays itself as an unwitting victim of a pathological liar, who abused the trust essential to any news organization. Yes, acknowledges the Times, Blair was promoted at break-neck speed, but his race had nothing to do with his rise. Rather, he was rewarded for his accomplishments. How could we have known, argues the Times, that he was making stories up, since we had no inkling of his perfidy?

http://frontpagemag.com/articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=7817

[Bjorn]

Originally posted by Baker
I'm surprised there haven't been any threads on Jayson Blair that plagiarized or fabricated material in at least three dozen articles. It has been mentioned:

http://www.randi.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19589

[EvilYeti]

I've been meaning to start a thread on it to highlight the perils of affirmative action.

Promoting unfit minority employees can backfire and actually PROMOTE racism, as when they inevetiably fall down it reinforces negative stereotypes. Its really a pretty sad story for all parties concerned.

Regarding Mr. Blair, I think the guy has some serious personal and emotional problems he needs to deal with, and I feel for him. The type and extent of his duplicy indicates some pretty severe mental problems (in my opinion). Last I heard he has been hospitalized. :(

[a_unique_person]

Originally posted by EvilYeti
I've been meaning to start a thread on it to highlight the perils of affirmative action.

Promoting unfit minority employees can backfire and actually PROMOTE racism, as when they inevetiably fall down it reinforces negative stereotypes. Its really a pretty sad story for all parties concerned.

Regarding Mr. Blair, I think the guy has some serious personal and emotional problems he needs to deal with, and I feel for him. The type and extent of his duplicy indicates some pretty severe mental problems (in my opinion). Last I heard he has been hospitalized. :(

How do you know he was given the job on that basis?

As for slack reporting, we have a current affairs show in Australia that concentrates on the standards of the media. Such poor standards in reporting is not so rare. Plagiarism, made up stories, breaking ethical standards, that is all pretty common. At least these guys did the right thing and sacked him. Plenty of places tend to sweep that sort of thing under the carpet.

If anything it is racism because it is made out to be such a big thing. Rush has been found out for plenty of worse stuff, but he is a hero to many people.

I have heard you guys mention a guy called Renaldo more than once, and he still has a job.

[renata]

People who are intent on committing fraud can go to remarkable lengths to perpetuate and hide it. A few years ago a star (white) reporter for New Republic was caught fabricating stories. Prior to that a reporter from Washington Post ( do not know the race, but it was a she) was caught fabricating a story for which, I think, she got a Pulitzer. It happens. Of all instances of plagiarism and fraud in journalism, I would imagine overwhelming majority was done by whites, as they tend to dominate in journalism. I see nothing wrong with giving a kid a chance- I see everything wrong with him not being caught earlier and being promoted so rapidly. However, this is not indicative of race, but rather of style of new NYT editor. Under him, many older, experienced reporters were forced out or quit, and management simply did not listen to the editors. This is NOT a failure of affirmative action, it is a failure of a poor corporate structure and one very corrupt man.

[EvilYeti]

Originally posted by a_unique_person

As for slack reporting, we have a current affairs show in Australia that concentrates on the standards of the media. Such poor standards in reporting is not so rare. Plagiarism, made up stories, breaking ethical standards, that is all pretty common. At least these guys did the right thing and sacked him. Plenty of places tend to sweep that sort of thing under the carpet.


You are mistaking European pop media for journalism. True, honest journalism is a unique American trandition and the NYT is one of the few remaining papers to (at least try to)uphold it.

Anyways, in my opinion real journalism died with the last true American newspaperman, Lars-Erik Nelson, in 2000.

Obituary (http://www.goodbyemag.com/nov00/nelson.html)

[a_unique_person]

Originally posted by EvilYeti


You are mistaking European pop media for journalism. True, honest journalism is a unique American trandition and the NYT is one of the few remaining papers to (at least try to)uphold it.

Anyways, in my opinion real journalism died with the last true American newspaperman, Lars-Erik Nelson, in 2000.

Obituary (http://www.goodbyemag.com/nov00/nelson.html)

European? I don't think they invented it all by themselves.

[EvilYeti]

Originally posted by a_unique_person


European? I don't think they invented it all by themselves.

No, they just perfected it. Care to offer a counter example?

[Cleopatra]

Hmmmm... Interesting ....

Don't you think that all of us, the readers, the " audience" have some responsibility too?

I mean, we crave for exciting reportages and spicy news... we practically drive those people to create stories just to please us!Who reads normal articles these days.

Of course, the next question is, "Who educated us" to be such readers...

Oh well...

[specious_reasons]

Originally posted by EvilYeti
I've been meaning to start a thread on it to highlight the perils of affirmative action.

Promoting unfit minority employees can backfire and actually PROMOTE racism, as when they inevetiably fall down it reinforces negative stereotypes. Its really a pretty sad story for all parties concerned.

Regarding Mr. Blair, I think the guy has some serious personal and emotional problems he needs to deal with, and I feel for him. The type and extent of his duplicy indicates some pretty severe mental problems (in my opinion). Last I heard he has been hospitalized. :(

Was it affirmative action? I've heard the "experts" bring that up, but I'm not sure it's the whole picture.

My assumption is that Affirmative Action played a part, but my guess is that Jayson Blair was also an excellent "office politics" player.

At my work, there are people who have reached high levels of the company, and have never managed a successful product. Sounds a lot like what Mr. Blair acheived.

[Genghis Pwn]

Lol @ The Times refusing to admit that affirmative action had a hand in this. It just shows you how far gone they are.

[Tmy]

Is it affirmative action to hire a black writer because you want someone to write articles from a black point of view?

Was this guy just a reporter or was he a columnist?

The guys black so automatically hes part of affirmative action.

Bob Ryan from the Boston Globe just got busted for making inappropraite comments. No one is saying "oh he never shouldve been hired. he gothis job because he's an Irishman and its a Boston paper."

[Tmy]

OK on 2nd look it does appear he was an affirmative action case.

BUT Im sure they wouldnve hire him if tehy knew he was a crazy liar.

There are lots of unqualified crazy liars wh kooshy media jobs. Look at Larry King.

[specious_reasons]

Newsweek came out with their cover story on this. One of the sidebars has a similar opinion to mine:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/915121.asp?0cb=-214157201

[aggle_rithm]

Originally posted by specious_reasons


Was it affirmative action? I've heard the "experts" bring that up, but I'm not sure it's the whole picture.

My assumption is that Affirmative Action played a part, but my guess is that Jayson Blair was also an excellent "office politics" player.

At my work, there are people who have reached high levels of the company, and have never managed a successful product. Sounds a lot like what Mr. Blair acheived.

I think affirmative action may have played a small part, and office politics a larger part. However, I think the biggest contributing factor was Blair's skill at tugging the heartstrings in his articles. The articles were (reportedly) well written and memorable, if one ignores the fact they were largely fabricated.

[JAR]

The Jayson Blair incident is one piece of evidence that affirmative action is flawed.

[specious_reasons]

Originally posted by JAR
The Jayson Blair incident is one piece of evidence that affirmative action is flawed.

The Jayson Blair incident is evidence that talented, unscrupulous people can cause a lot of damage to an organization if not managed properly.

The man was well qualified for the position he started in at the NYT. AA may have given the edge over other qualified candidates, but the rest was his talent and sucking up to superiors.

I just don't see AA as the biggest problem in this mess.

[headscratcher4]

Blair is a criminal. How he got the position is irrelevent to his committing the crime. Just as how George Bush got into Yale (as a legacy and with a "c" grade point average -- probably keeping more deserving minorities, Jews, Blacks, Orrientals out of his class way back when) is irrelevent to his future as Presidnet. George Bush was not a criminal and thus did not squander his opportunities nor disapoint all of those who proped him up in the Bush Family affirmative action program and bailed him out of his failed businesses.

My point isn't to compare Blair to Bush, it is rather to say that how you use your advantages is what is key here...and Blair made errors, but his action was ultimately intentional fraud, not "malpractice". There is no reason not to believe that had Blair actually tried to learn and done his job, instead of faking it, that he wouldn't have succeeded.

The bottom line is that Blair was a criminal...this isn't about competence, this is about a sociopath. How is he any more of a poster child for what is wrong with Affirmative Action, than the boys at Enron, WorldCom, Smith Barney, etc. are poster children for Captialism and American Corporations being inherenetly evil?

Like the boys at Enron, Blair was out to perpetrait a knowing fraud...the fact is, with or without Affirmative Action and regardless of race, whereever Blair got a job, he was a bomb waiting to go off.