This is for all those people who have been landing here via google looking for stuff on Jayson Blair.
My previous post on Blair is here. 'Washington City Paper' article that I linked to in that post has a scathing critique on the subject.
The most exhaustive coverage is now available on NYT itself:
-Article on Corrections
-The list of corrections
-The editor's note which goes on to say:
For all of the falsifications and plagiarism, The Times apologizes to its readers in the first instance, and to those who have figured in improper coverage. It apologizes, too, to those whose work was purloined and to all conscientious journalists whose professional trust has been betrayed by this episode.
Romenesko's as usual provides terrific ongoing coverage and is your best bet for keeping up on the subject. You may want to take some time to browse through Romenesko's letters forum. It has a vibrant media community.
So far as I know, Jason Blair did not have a home page.
I don't take any pleasure in seeing the Times having to swallow such humiliations. I don't think I'll have anything more to say about the Blair issue specifically.
However, this passage about Howell Raines, the edior of NYT, that Cosmo macero has in his weblog, had to be quoted:
"I am haunted by something I know in my bones," Raines wrote in 1998. "Mr. Barnicle, like this writer, is a product of a male-dominated, mostly white tribal culture that takes care of its own." The "historical bottom line of this event will be that a white guy with the right connections got pardoned for offenses that would have taken down a minority or female journalist."