Pretty much explains the propensity toward playing fast & loose with the truth.
Jayson Blair appears to have been a overly ambitious, self-indulgent, (but talented) kid who was allowed by his superiors at the NYT to cut every corner and run amok. It's easy to blame him alone, but his editors are the ones who I think really deserve the scorn. They continued to reward him for his misbehavior in spite of warning bells going off all over the place which they continually ignored. Blair had youth, alcohol and drugs as an excuse -- what was their excuse?
Their excuse was this: "We're the New York Times! We decide what is and isn't news!"