Black Journalists Embrace Editor Who Resigned | Los Angeles Times

[Ediacara]

August 8, 2003

THE NATION
Black Journalists Embrace Editor Who Resigned
-Former N.Y. Times manager discusses how race did -- and did not -- play a role in scandal.

By Gayle Pollard-Terry, Times Staff Writer

DALLAS — Veteran newsman Gerald Boyd received a hero's welcome Thursday at a national convention of black journalists, where he spoke publicly for the first time since the Jayson Blair scandal ended his career as managing editor of the New York Times.

Boyd resigned nine weeks ago along with Editor Howell Raines. They were forced out by a firestorm ignited by revelations that Blair, a young African American reporter, had plagiarized or fabricated portions of 36 stories, including reports on the Washington-area sniper and the family of Jessica Lynch, the POW rescued during the Iraq war.

Both Boyd and Blair are black, prompting speculation that Blair was an unqualified "diversity" hire and that Boyd protected the younger African American journalist despite his failures.

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[iam]

1. Let prejudice rule

So afferative action is bad because prejudiced conservatives will assume that a black man will only be hired because he is black? Will we let racism determine what laws are passed because it will cause racism? Absurd.