New York Times reporter resigns; accused of appropriating material

Associated Press ^ | May 1, 2003 | Tara Burghart

[Timesink]

New York Times Reporter Resigns

By TARA BURGHART
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP)--A New York Times reporter resigned Thursday after he was accused of appropriating without attribution material from another newspaper's story about a Texas woman whose son was killed in combat in Iraq, the Times said.

A Times review of the story by Jayson Blair has ``been unable to determine what original reporting he did to produce it,'' Times Executive Editor Howell Raines said in a statement Thursday night.

The review began after San Antonio Express-News Editor Robert Rivard sent an e-mail Tuesday to Times editors asking them to acknowledge publicly that the newspaper wrongfully appropriated reporter Macarena Hernandez's work.

``The Times apologizes to its readers for a grave breach of its journalistic standards,'' Raines said. ``We will also apologize to the family of the soldier ... for heightening their pain in a time of mourning.''

Efforts to reach Blair for comment Thursday were unsuccessful. A woman who answered the telephone at a Brooklyn address listed as belonging to Jayson Blair said it was a wrong number, as did a woman at a Manhattan address.

Blair, 27, joined the Times full time in 1999 after an internship, according to a Times spokeswoman.

At the Express-News, Rivard said the paper was ``satisfied The New York Times editors addressed the matter in a timely way, and we appreciate the public acknowledgment of the work of our reporter and this newspaper that was inappropriately presented by the Times reporter as his own work.''

``It will be good to put this matter behind us,'' Rivard said.

An April 26 story by Blair detailed Juanita Anguiano's monthlong wait for news about the fate of her son, Army Sgt. Edward Anguiano, who was reported missing in late March. He was confirmed dead two days after the story ran.

Blair started his story by writing, ``Juanita Anguiano points proudly to the pinstriped couches, the tennis bracelet in its red case and the Martha Stewart furniture out on the patio. She proudly points up to the ceiling fan, the lamp for Mother's Day, the entertainment center that arrived last Christmas and all the other gifts from her only son, Edward, a 24-year-old Army mechanic.''

The Express-News story by Hernandez, published April 18, contained a similar passage: ``So the single mother, a teacher's aide, points to the ceiling fan he installed in her small living room. She points to the pinstriped couches, the tennis bracelet still in its red velvet case and the Martha Stewart patio furniture, all gifts from her first born and only son.''

Raines said the Times continues to investigate Blair's reporting about the Texas family and is reviewing other work he did for the newspaper.

``We will do what is necessary to be sure the record is kept straight,'' Raines said.

The story by Blair, who interned at the Times with Hernandez in 1998, contained other wording very close to that in the Express-News account.

Hernandez wrote of Juanita Anguiano: ``She said she has moments when she can picture her son in some Iraqi village, like the ones she has seen on TV, surrounded by a herd of animals and the Iraqis he has befriended.''

Blair's story contained this passage: ``At moments, Ms. Anguiano says, she can picture her son in an Iraqi village, like the ones she has seen on television, surrounded by animals and the Iraqi people he has befriended.''

AP-NY-05-01-03 2206EDT

[Timesink]

Ah, Schadenfreude.

[Robert A Cook PE]

All that we deem fit to copy.

[Timesink]

I do believe this is the same jerk the Times sent to West Virginia in order to make Pfc. Jessica Lynch's family and friends look like a bunch of backwoods yahoos, something I commented on angrily at the time. Let me see if I can find the post.

[PhiKapMom]

Cannot believe they actually got rid of this reporter. I thought it was funny when the reporter at the San Antonio Express News said he started reading what he thought was a reprint of his story.

How many more stories are the NY Times robbing to put out a paper?

[Paul Atreides]

"Appropriate." I guess it is politically incorrect to say someone has plagiarized.

[Fraulein]

Dittos

[Fred Mertz]

Cut 'n paste, what a waste.

[Ruth A.]

You made the point I thought of when I read the first sentence. Sure let's make everything ambiguous.

[Timesink]

Found it:

Rescue in Iraq and a 'Big Stir' in West Virginia - By DOUGLAS JEHL and JAYSON BLAIR

I asked the question at the time:

As someone who's pretty much split his life between West Virginia and Manhattan, I have to say this article, to me, just REEKS of two patrician snots from New York City taking the redeye out to "Yahoo Land" to soak up the "local color." Am I reading too much into this?

Some agreed with me, some disagreed about the "local color" angle. But in any case, I appear to have been right about Blair being a patrician snot.

[Beck_isright]

"All the news that's fit to plunder, just like CNN"

[Timesink]

Is there any way to search by author's name, so we can attach warnings to any articles posted on FR written by this plagiarist?

[okie01]

"How many more stories are the NY Times robbing to put out a paper?"

The Chicago Tribune and Indianapolis Star have also lodged professional complaints with the Times concerning "misappropriated stories".

All this and Maureen Dowd, too...

[PhiKapMom]

Total waste is right! Why trash a career by copying someone else's story? Makes me suspect of anything he has written.

[jlogajan]

What a dolt. Why wouldn't he imagine that someone on that paper might read the NYT?

[blam]

"Some agreed with me, some disagreed about the "local color" angle. But in any case, I appear to have been right about Blair being a patrician snot."

Excellent. You read him correctly, early.

[CFC__VRWC]

The Chicago Tribune and Indianapolis Star have also lodged professional complaints with the Times concerning "misappropriated stories".

All this and Maureen Dowd, too...

It couldn't happen to a more deserving media outlet.

[PhiKapMom]

LOL!!!!!!!!!! I cannot stand Dowd!!!!

Bet newspaper reporters/editors are going to be looking very closely at the NY Times now. Wouldn't it be great if this brought them down?

Wonder if Columbia School of Journalism is going to award them one of the worst papers in America for plagerizing stories? That would be hilarious! They could join The Daily Oklahoman which gets one yearly because their Editorial pages are conservative because they believe in smaller government and less federal controls. And they still loathe the Clintons!

[PAR35]

The New York Times is not the only paper that has been recently caught stealing stories:

Here are some excerpts from this story:

http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2003-05-01/buzz.html/1/index.html

Sincerely Not Flattered
Memphis story thief making the rounds
COMPILED BY PATRICK WILLIAMS
patrick.williams@dallasobserver.com

< snip >

"It worked for the Tri-State Defender in Memphis, Tennessee, until recently. According to newspaper reports, the weekly published more than 100 articles between 1995 and 2002 that were lifted wholesale from other weeklies across the country, including at least a couple from the Observer. The "author" merely changed the byline or, in some instances, moved whole sets of facts and people from their original locations to Tennessee."

< snip >

"Oh, and somehow the issue of fathers' rights became a black issue in the Defender, which circulates primarily in Memphis' black community. The real dad in question is white."

[Norman Conquest]

Why, then, are the editorial writers and op-ed columnists allowed to reprint DNC press releases, verbatim, under their own bylines?

[martin_fierro]

This him?