March 11, 2004
I hate that cheating, lying, hack.
Harsh words, but Jayson Blair deserves every one of them and more. What he doesn't deserve, however, is his newfound celebrity, and the paycheck that comes with it.
A quick recap: This would-be journalist isn't like me and my colleagues. In his brief stint with The New York Times, he admits he created countless works of fiction passed off as news, made up scores of people for his sources, and pretended to report from places he'd never even seen or traveled to.
He is a true con artist who deserved his exile from one of the nation's most respected newspapers. He should have never been there in the first place. Blair resigned from the Times in May after plagiarism accusations were leveled against him.
And now those accusations, which slapped every honest journalist in the face, are helping the plagiarizing pariah make money off of this debacle.
To add insult to an already-wounded profession, he's now published a book and has started his latest round of television appearances. He'll make more money from both than most honest journalists working the daily grind. Good journalists deserve better than that.
Blair's book, Burning Down My Masters' House: My Life at the New York Times, went on sale Saturday. Blair received a $150,000 advance for it. In it, Blair admits many of his stories were drug-fueled fiction. So now he's an admitted illegal drug user and plagiarist — who will be making more money than you and me.
The Times newsroom "was a cutthroat culture that leaves no rivals standing," Blair writes in his book. That's still no excuse to violate one of the main tenets of journalism — that is, to report the facts accurately and honestly. No newsroom culture, no matter how bad, should be an excuse to take the easy way out.
Blair's transgressions hit minority journalists the hardest. He was brought to the Times courtesy of a program designed to place minority journalists in newsrooms. I was part of such a minority program. That program put me here. But that doesn't mean I didn't earn my position. And it certainly doesn't mean I followed Blair's lead.
His mistakes, in fact, made me work harder to make sure I never made the same ones. If Blair lied on the job, you have to wonder what lies got him the position in the first place.
The scandal at the Times was on the lips of everyone at the internship orientation I attended at the Freedom Forum in Virginia in May. Even then, I thought it was more attention than someone such as Blair deserved. And now he's undeservedly in the spotlight again.
Understandably, the media are approaching Blair's new book with some caution. Many journalists aren't in a hurry to give it publicity. But not NBC's Katie Couric, who scored an exclusive interview with the fallen journalist. Couric told the Associated Press that "our job is about talking to scoundrels and saints."
True enough. But Blair is one scoundrel who should get as little attention as possible.
Ahmad is a copy editor for the Press & Sun-Bulletin.
© 2004 Press & Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, N.Y.