Jayson Blair

[Weltall]

NEW YORK — Former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair said he "couldn't stop laughing" when the newspaper corrected his fraudulent description of an American POW's home in West Virginia, according to excerpts of an interview with the New York Observer.

"That's my favorite, just because the description was so far off from the reality. And the way they described it in The Times story -- someone read a portion of it to me -- I couldn't stop laughing," Blair said in an interview scheduled for publication Wednesday. The newspaper made excerpts available to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

In one of his few interviews since resigning from the Times on May 1, Blair told the Observer that he "fooled some of the most brilliant people in journalism" with his reporting.

In a brazen act of deception, Blair wrote under a dateline from Palestine, W.Va., about the family of Pvt. Jessica Lynch, a POW rescued in Iraq. He described the family's home as overlooking "tobacco fields and cattle pastures." The porch overlooks no such thing and no member of the Lynch family remembers talking to Blair, the Times said in an extensive investigation into his work.

The Times found fraud, plagiarism and inaccuracies in 36 of 73 articles examined between October and April.

Newsweek has reported that Blair signed with literary agent David Vigliano to market his story for possible book and movie deals. The magazine, citing friends of the ex-reporter, also reported that Blair had sought treatment for substance abuse.

According to excerpts from the Observer, Blair said his deceptions stemmed from personal problems.

"I was either going to kill myself or I was going to kill the journalist persona," he said. "So Jayson Blair the human being could live, Jayson Blair the journalist had to die."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,87415,00.html

This guy is pathetic. In a situation that is so racially-charged right now, this fool is only perpetuating racial stereotypes against black people.

I don't think this is so much an example of how wrong affirmative action is as much as I think it's an example of how rotten society is becoming where a person can commit fraud en masse and be able to make a tidy profit from it.

[A Black Falcon]

Oooold news.

And it couldn't be avoided, really... you can't expect newspapers to check every article for fraud. Sure there were signs but only so much could have happened... and it really is a shame.

[Weltall]

This isn't old, it was just reported. Not what he did, but that he thinks unethical behavior is a laughing matter.

[A Black Falcon]

Well I read that article a day or two ago, but I meant the issue in general wasn't new news...

And yes, I read the complete 8-page explanation article on the NYT website. Not the 9-page one that showed a bunch of his deceptive articles, though.

[Great Rumbler]

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
Oooold news.

And it couldn't be avoided, really... you can't expect newspapers to check every article for fraud. Sure there were signs but only so much could have happened... and it really is a shame.

Actually it could have becuase it is pretty much a fact that the people at the top knew what he was doing and didn't do anything about it.

[A Black Falcon]

"Knew what he was doing"? You didn't read very closely did you... they did NOT know he was lying. Definitely not. Yes, one desk did have questions about him and thought he was sloppy and error-prone, but didn't think he was actually making it all up... then when he moved to the national desk they weren't told those concerns so those people suspected nothing for quite some time. So there was a lapse in communication that could have helped solve the problem... but it happened. And no one actually knew he was making stuff up anyway... until it all came out.

[alien space marine]

Miss information and bad reporting is pretty common in the news.
The reporters have a 30% error limit any more then that and their fired,But clearly this guy was more like 90%.

A report on startrek a while back said Captain Janeway was captain of the Enterpise (when infact it is Voyager , sombody waisnt doing their research since Voyager is the name of the series )

IGN is riddled with alot of mistakes , "Like Medieve died in warcraft IIx". (when infact he died in warcraft 1 and he was only mentioned once in warcraft IIx)

I also remebering watching a American documentory on the Flooding in Quebec in a small town after a dam blew, "They said Montreal was the capital of Quebec when infact it is Quebec city so us poor canadian have to laugh at you americans for being spoon fed bad education on TLC.