N.Y. Times: Ex-Reporter 'Committed Fraud'

AP | 5/11/03 | TARA BURGHART

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

The investigation showed that while he was filing stories with datelines from around the country, Blair was often in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, even filing expense receipts from stores and restaurants there.

This guy's crime was that he was using other people's material. If this guy had stuck to making up headlines and proving his points through creative writing, he would have been just fine. That's how the media does business. He wrote over 600 articles. The Times looked the other way for this guy until they just couldn't anymore.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

More than one Clymer...

[Guillermo]

Blair was part of a Diversity Journalism program.

I guess the color of ones skin is more important than whether they tell the truth or not.

[DoctorMichael]

N.Y. Times: Ex-Liberal-Reporter 'Committed Fraud'

[Capt. Tom]

I wish he had written about those black churches burning in Arkansas, that Clinton mentioned. - Tom

[mewzilla]

They've known this since 2002. The only reason it' s out in the open now is that another newspaper called them on it. Wonder if the Times tried to get that other paper to keep quiet? I haven't seen anyone ask that question yet...

[cynicom]

Rather odd that outsiders had to expose the "journalist". One has to wonder what else is locked in the NYT closet. "All the news fit to print", sure it is.

[Kevin Curry]

If it had been a less liberal paper in the center of the controversy, Jesse Jackson and Johnnie Cochran would be on its doorstep howling in harmony about a "rush to judgment."

[ImpotentRage]

"The Times cited several reasons for not detecting the problems with Blair, including 'a failure of communication among senior editors; few complaints from the subjects of (Blair's) articles; his savviness and his ingenious ways of covering his tracks.'"

Couldn't be because he is a minority and diversity is everything, could it?

[alnick]

This is why I'm so skeptical of "unnamed sources." It's just too easy to make something up and attribute it to an unnamed source.

[Timesink]

They've known this since 2002. The only reason it' s out in the open now is that another newspaper called them on it. Wonder if the Times tried to get that other paper to keep quiet? I haven't seen anyone ask that question yet...

Remember that the other paper not only "asked" the Times to investigate, but also leaked the data to Howard Kurtz as well, who published it. I believe it wasn't even 36 hours from initial complaint until Blair was shown the door "resigned."

[randog]

Liberal journalism is all about distorting the facts or just making them up to fit their agenda. It's been going on for years; Pulitzers have even been awarded to work that was pure fantasy pawned off as fact.

In a way I don't blame this young reporter for doing what he did--he was just emulating what his peers taught him and taking it to the next level.

[sit-rep]

Ummmm... I think the News paper realizes the push from the right, and knows it is guilty of many of the same things Blair is. I think they wanted to put on a little show, and Blair was the fall guy...

[Republican_Strategist]

Times Watch

[dwollmann]

I'll remember this incident every time I hear one of the useful idiots rattling on about the Internet and "its lack of filters" and how sites like Drudge Report can't be trusted because of the lack thereof.

[Bonaparte]

"I guess the color of ones skin is more important than whether they tell the truth or not."

Also more important than whether the guy has even graduated from a school of journalism. This guy failed to complete his course of studies and yet got a NYT internship and was then hired on as a reporter. This is a job most experienced journalists with degrees cannot get. The NYT promoted an inexperienced rank amateur over the heads of well-trained and seasoned professionals. They knew exactly what they were doing and yet went ahead anyway. The question is --

"Why ?"

It can't be the color of his skin only, because there are plenty of qualified black journalists out there.

[Bonaparte]

"...he was just emulating what his peers taught him and taking it to the next level."

He made the mistake of getting caught. He wasn't taught to do that. In fact, he had plenty of examples before him of what happens when even experienced reporters get caught -- at the Boston Globe, at The New Republic, etc.

[mcenedo]

The Times has a long history of lying. I'm surprised this guy wasn't promoted.

Wonder if Arthur and Howell will blame this on the vast, right wing controlled, media cabal.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

People don't even listen to named sources and photos regarding the Ron Brown crash. They called it 'an urban myth' in Snopes, even though four forensic specialists in the Military stuck to their guns as they were drummed out of the military and one, Kathleen Janowski was even threatened with execution by the military brass. Ah but that can't be so because, well because...er... it can't be so.