:rofl:
May 15, 2003
The Rundown
Jayson Blair sells his story, a fact that upsets me even more than Stephen Glass’s return through The Fabulist. Glass at least served a period of penance, like Marv Albert or something. Blair wants to go straight from getting shredded in the NYTimes to climbing the NYTimes bestseller list. While I’m not quite on the same level as Goldberg's righteous anger, I do feel that there should be no quarter given to Blair's vile lies. And I think that this whole affair finally signals that the New York Times deserves to be ignored as a source for legitimate news -- the Washington Post can replace it as the newspaper of record. And Jon Stewart had this to say:
“A New York Times reporter who resigned after being accused of plagiarism may be paid as much as $1 million to tell his story in a new book. Not surprisingly the book will be called 'The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.'”
http://www.bendomenech.com/blog/archives/000917.htmlWPost on Janet Cooke scandal at Times:The series of fabrications that resulted last week in the resignations of the top two editors of the New York Times is a calamity for all of American journalism...
Anyone who can gloat at their discomfiture is worse than a fool. This is far more than a personal embarrassment or a black eye for the Times. It is a serious blow to the credibility of the press, and it comes at a time when public trust is fragile.
Those of us who work at The Post know what our friends at the Times are going through. In 1980 a talented colleague of ours, Janet Cooke, concocted a story about an 8-year-old heroin addict, which The Post played prominently on the front page. It was not until the story was awarded a Pulitzer Prize that it and its author were exposed as phony.
We live with that legacy every day. No matter how much distinguished work is done by this staff -- and there is a wealth of it -- it does not erase the enormity of the failure to prevent the Janet Cooke fiasco...
If the Times' leadership is wise, it will recognize this institutional disaster for what it is and reflect on the culture that produced it. It will not simply change editors but change attitudes.
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