Another Jayson Blair?

NRO ^ | 12/17/03 | Michelle Malkin

[William McKinley]

Looks like the New York Times has another ugly Jayson Blair-like scandal on its hands. This time, the young minority reporter is Charlie LeDuff, a part Native-American, part-Cajun writer, known as a rising star and favorite pet of former executive editor Howell Raines.

The hotshot LeDuff is now in hot water over his cribbing of anecdotes from someone else's book about kayaking down the Los Angeles River for his own Page One fluff story about — you guessed it! — kayaking down the Los Angeles River. An embarrassing correction published in the New York Times on Dec. 8 explained:

An article last Monday about the Los Angeles River recounted its history and described the reporter's trip downriver in a kayak. In research for the article, the reporter consulted a 1999 book by Blake Gumprecht, "The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth." Several passages relating facts and lore about the river distilled passages from the book. Although the facts in those passages were confirmed independently-through other sources or the reporter's first hand observation-the article should have acknowledged the significant contribution of Mr. Gumprecht's research. Gumprecht, an assistant professor of geography at the University of New Hampshire and a former newspaper reporter, told Slate's Jack Shafer he was "fairly shocked" by the similarities between his book and the Times's story, and that LeDuff's borrowing went beyond accepted journalistic practices.

Perhaps not coincidentally, LeDuff was a good pal of the disgraced Jayson Blair. According to New York Metro:

One of Blair's closest friends was Charlie LeDuff, a rising star in Raines's firmament known for his colorful writing style. "Jayson would sort of tag along" with him, said a friend of LeDuff's. "He was very competitive with Charlie, and then kind of took it many, many steps too far-because he could get away with it." Like Blair, LeDuff climbed the Times's ladder swiftly thanks to the media diversity machine. The 36-year-old scribe went straight from journalism school to a minority internship at the Times to full-time reporter in 1995. As LeDuff explained in a 2001 interview with JournalismJobs.com:

[The New York Times was] my first newspaper job. I was an intern for three months at the Alaska Fisherman's Journal. That was my first publication-type job. But the first thing I ever wrote that got published, my Russian friend in the Northeast got killed with alcohol. I just sort of wrote an obituary. The new class of Russian youth, after the fall of the wall, on the street corners selling pins and posters, running from the law. And I wrote that and I think I wrote it pretty well. I felt good and I felt like, hey I'm smart enough. I can do this.

The New York Post's Keith Kelly says there's no word on whether LeDuff will be punished for his not-so-bright transgression. But the Times has been willing to overlook LeDuff's journalistic shortcuts before. In September, author and columnist Marvin Olasky reported that LeDuff attributed fake quotes to a naval officer in San Diego to fit the reporter's antiwar agenda.

Lieutenant Commander Beidler, 32, on his way to Iraq in January, was walking with his family toward the end of Naval Station Pier 2 when the Times's Charlie LeDuff asked him for his general view of war protesters. Mr. Beidler recalls stating, "Protesters have a right to protest, and our job is to defend those rights. But in protesting, they shouldn't protest blindly; instead, they should provide reasonable solutions to the problem." The LeDuff version had Mr. Beidler criticizing Los Angeles protesters but turning his guns at a complacent United States: "It's war, Commander Beidler said, and the nation is fat. 'No one is screaming for battery-powered cars,' he added." The journalist then turned to Commander Beidler wife's Christal: "'I'm just numb,' she said as she patted down his collar. 'I'll cry myself to sleep, I'm sure.'"

Mr. Beidler was at sea when he discovered how far at sea the Times's reporting was, but he sent off a letter to the editor stating what he had said and arguing that the quotes about national fatness and battery-powered cars "were completely fabricated by Mr. LeDuff in order to connect our nation's dependence on oil with the current military buildup in the Middle East."

Mr. Beidler also stated, "Mr. LeDuff continued his shameful behavior by attributing words and actions to my wife that were not her own. Not only did she not say she would cry herself to sleep, but she didn't pat down my collar either, which was impossible for her to accomplish with my civilian shirt hidden under my jacket and a duffle bag hanging on my shoulder closest to her."

In response, a Times editor shrugged off Beidler's complaint. LeDuff, he informed Beidler, "thinks that he accurately represented his interview with you and your wife, and therefore so do I. If you have another encounter some day with The New York Times, I hope its outcome is more satisfactory to you."

Institutional arrogance. Diversity monomania. Intellectual thievery. Wasn't this all supposed to end with the fall of Raines? How many other victims of LeDuff's "colorful writing" are out there? And how many other Jayson Blairs remain nestled in the Gray Lady's bosom?

Stay tuned.

[William McKinley]

Lieutenant Commander Beidler, 32, on his way to Iraq in January, was walking with his family toward the end of Naval Station Pier 2 when the Times's Charlie LeDuff asked him for his general view of war protesters. Mr. Beidler recalls stating, "Protesters have a right to protest, and our job is to defend those rights. But in protesting, they shouldn't protest blindly; instead, they should provide reasonable solutions to the problem." The LeDuff version had Mr. Beidler criticizing Los Angeles protesters but turning his guns at a complacent United States: "It's war, Commander Beidler said, and the nation is fat. 'No one is screaming for battery-powered cars,' he added." The journalist then turned to Commander Beidler wife's Christal: "'I'm just numb,' she said as she patted down his collar. 'I'll cry myself to sleep, I'm sure.'"

Something always gets lost in the translation. An honest error, I am sure.

Exactly why was this guy not fired for basically committing fraud?

[thoughtomator]

Because the heat isn't on... yet.

[Wheee The People]

In response, a Times editor shrugged off Beidler's complaint...

The NY Times has been in a spider hole too long.

[martin_fierro]

Pingenfreude

[randog]

Let's hope Lieutenant Commander Beidler gets to tell his story to a national televised audience.

[martin_fierro]

LeDuff (l)

[tracer]

jumbled-eye-a bump

[paltz]

I felt good and I felt like, hey I'm smart enough. I can do this.

What a shock.

[martin_fierro]

Here's that JournalismJobs interview:

[The New York Times was] my first newspaper job. I was an intern for three months at the Alaska Fisherman's Journal. That was my first publication-type job. But the first thing I ever wrote that got published, my Russian friend in the Northeast got killed with alcohol. I just sort of wrote an obituary. The new class of Russian youth, after the fall of the wall, on the street corners selling pins and posters, running from the law. And I wrote that and I think I wrote it pretty well. I felt good and I felt like, hey I'm smart enough. I can do this.

[hosepipe]

" Pingenfreude "....LOL

[Tacis]

I'm sorry, but this is racial profiling. Two out of two minority employees accused of plagiarism? Coincidence? Can't be! They are looking to fire minorities. The NYT is in deeeep trouble if they accuse any other minority of plagiarism. The next one or two or five caught HAVE to be white. So all you black and minority plagiarists still on the payroll are home free. Go copy!!!

[Viking2002]

The Times has sealed it's fate as the National Enquirer of big-city newspapers.

[martin_fierro]

Here's my other favorite:

<|:)~

[arasina]

Exactly why was this guy not fired for basically committing fraud?

Because The New York Times is sitting on its LeDuff, maybe?

[lelio]

I felt good and I felt like, hey I'm smart enough. I can do this.

An interesting American Psychological Association paper on that very subject entitled
Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

[Go Gordon]

"But the first thing I ever wrote that got published, my Russian friend in the Northeast got killed with alcohol. "

This guy still can't write a complete and proper sentence. Some rising start....

[CFC__VRWC]

Let's hope Lieutenant Commander Beidler gets to tell his story to a national televised audience.

Problem is, unless the LTC or his wife recorded the interview, it'll come down to a "he said - she said", and the Slimes will doubtless stick with the reporter. It'll take a number of people coming forward with allegations of quote-manufacturing before the Slimes even begins to feel any heat.

[Republicus2001]

he still can't communicate well

[CyberAnt]

Is it just me or did Howell Raines have a lot of young men as "pets". I'm not liking what I'm thinking about this.

[Eala]

It's the press; it lies. It's the honest few that are the exception.

[1rudeboy]

Once, just once I'd like to see a reporter at the NYT "accidentally" slip-in a conservative sentiment. Let's see how that yob who blew-off the Lieutenant Commander acts then.

[expatpat]

The NYT rag is filled with queers in management positions, as admitted by a Times journalist.

[Grampa Dave]

Again the Slimes proves that it is incapable of honest reporting, not lying, plagerizing and turning fantasy into supposedly news.

[CyberAnt]

Interesting! No wonder their views are so distorted!

[mhking]

Here we go again....

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[mombonn]

I just sort of wrote an obituary
I felt good and I felt like, hey I'm smart enough. I can do this

Like, man, totally cool.

Another RAT for literacy.

[eleni121]

Just like my grad student in education threatened me when I caught him plagiarizing: "You can't fail me. Nobody ever told me that I couldn't copy from the internet and I am getting my Masters in December!"

That's a quote. He probably did get his masters in Education but delayed by a semester.

[Tamzee]

[The New York Times was] my first newspaper job. I was an intern for three months at the Alaska Fisherman's Journal. That was my first publication-type job. But the first thing I ever wrote that got published, my Russian friend in the Northeast got killed with alcohol. I just sort of wrote an obituary. The new class of Russian youth, after the fall of the wall, on the street corners selling pins and posters, running from the law. And I wrote that and I think I wrote it pretty well. I felt good and I felt like, hey I'm smart enough. I can do this.

My 10-year old has a better sense of vocabulary and sentence structure than this "journalist".

[Fledermaus]

ROFL..there is no LA River! It's an aqueduct.

Forget lazy journalism...it's plain stupidity!

[Lancey Howard]

Exactly why was this guy not fired for basically committing fraud?

Now why do you think?

[Liz]

As LeDuff explained......[The NY Times was] my first newspaper job. I was an intern for three months at the Alaska Fisherman's Journal.

I hear that the NY Times is now interviewing top reporters from the Arkansas Poultry Gazette.

[martin_fierro]

As LeDuff explained......[The NY Times was] my first newspaper job. I was an intern for three months at the Alaska Fisherman's Journal.

From fishwrap to fishwrap. A lateral career move.

[Miss Marple]

Time to get out your media ping list again!!!

[maica]

In response, a Times editor shrugged off Beidler's complaint. LeDuff, he informed Beidler, "thinks that he accurately represented his interview with you and your wife, and therefore so do I. If you have another encounter some day with The New York Times, I hope its outcome is more satisfactory to you."

Institutional arrogance. Diversity monomania. Intellectual thievery. Wasn't this all supposed to end with the fall of Raines? How many other victims of LeDuff's "colorful writing" are out there? And how many other Jayson Blairs remain nestled in the Gray Lady's bosom?

JUST "WOW"

I hope Michelle makes the rounds of talk shows to spread this story widely. Most Americans might not pay a lot of attention to what passes for journalism at the NYT, but applying ficticious anti-war speech to a serviceman (Lt Commander) on his way to war is WAY beyond the limits of 'free' speech.

[Levante]

"Looks like the New York Times has another ugly Jayson Blair-like scandal on its hands"

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!


Morons.

[Grampa Dave]

The Slimes has no morality from top to the bottom.

They have gotten by with left wing lies going back to the days of Lenin.

Now, when they lie, they get caught. The whole world laughs, and each exposed lie causes more subscription cancellations and less ad $'s coming in.

Since they are arrogant and amoral lunatic libs from the top to the bottom, they are incapable of changing. So each week will bring more lies and more exposure re their lies. They have started a self inflicted slow and painful death spiral like the phoney national news on ABCNNBC BS have been in for the past 3+ years.

[Liz]

As LeDuff explained......[The NY Times was] my first newspaper job. I was an intern for three months at the Alaska Fisherman's Journal...... From fishwrap to fishwrap. A lateral career move.

Hey, give the guy a break. He's got nowhere to go but up.

With that bgrnd, LeDuff's prime reportorial material for the DNC's Diversity Desk.

They need experienced people there to hype DNC candidates as they prostrate themselves before the many hyphenates lining up for tax-paid handouts.

[Grampa Dave]

After his internship, he was probably asked to leave "The Alaska Fisherman's Journal", so in desperation, he tried the NY Slimes gig in lying, plagerism and DNC spinning.

[Liz]

He didn't like being an intern at the Fisherman's Journal. His main job was measuring the size of the fish the subscribers said they caught. That's why the NY Times hired him. To get the Fisherman's Journal subscribers. LOL.

[Grampa Dave]

I doubt if very many fishers subscribe to the NY Slimes. If they do, I don't want to fish with them or be down stream of them.

[Travis McGee]

I wouldn't believe the NYT if they said the sun would rise tomorrow.

[Montfort]

Scary. So that cheater could end up as a Principal or Superintendedt of Schools some day.

[thegreatbeast]

You said it! The editor's response is as "cold" as it gets. 'We'll try to fix it the next time you speak with a guy from the NYT!'

[Skywalker]

Yeah, it was cold, all right. BTW, I'm the Lieutenant Commander that was a victim of The New York Times' political spin and Charlie LeDuff's dishonest journalistic practices.

As for the "he-said/she-said" argument, it's a valid one. But I remember just about everything I said the day I sailed off to war. It's one of those days that permanently sticks in your mind ... and I can recall every last word I said ... and every last bitter tear I tasted when I kissed my wife goodbye. And I remember the anger at reading my supposed words the next day on the internet (yes, we have internet access on ships!). It's still fresh to this day. Who wouldn't be excited to know that their words would be read nationally? Instead, I found myself outraged at reading something I didn't say.

Your average Joe (apologies to anyone named "Joe") would be ticked off for a fortnight, but I'm not like that. I will spend the rest of my life in defense of my integrity and will never let this go until I get a formal apology from Mr. LeDuff and the NYT. Charlie LeDuff took advantage of the wrong guy. Did he really think he could play me for a fool? Did he really think that I wouldn't question his integrity? His sins are catching up with him, and quickly, I might add.

The Navy Core Values are Honor, Courage, and Integrity. Those three words are going to haunt Charlie for the rest of his career.

I challenge anyone to compare what Charlie LeDuff printed and what I stated on my CBS interview several minutes after LeDuff hastily scribbled some notes from our conversation. The words are as different as night and day.

If anyone wishes the record of correspondence I had with the NYT, don't hesitate to e-mail me: MKBeidler@aol.com.

Peace,

Mike Beidler

[Skywalker]

Any help I can get to nationally tell my story, I'll gladly accept.

Best,

Mike Beidler