"Whenever I find myself obsessing, as I've been doing over the Jayson Blair scandal at The New York Times, I do reality checks with friends." Read the column

"After my recent column about the Blair mess, a white North Carolina journalist e-mailed me. 'I don't believe [Blair] represents anyone but himself,' the copy editor wrote. Therefore, he continued, nobody but Blair and his supervisors should feel burdened by his misbehavior." Read the column

Farai Chideya, Alternet: "When I heard about Jayson Blair, the 27-year-old black reporter at the New York Times who made up at least half of his recent articles, I knew that the spin would be about race. Blair was a minority recruit. Now, according to some critics, he's a poster boy for the repeal of affirmative action.  Read the column

George E. Curry, Blackpressusa.com: "After Janet Cooke concocted a story about a non-existent eight-year-old heroin addict, an embarrassed “Washington Post” had to return a Pulitzer Prize it had been awarded in 1981 for the bogus story. ... I still remember what I told a reporter from the “St. Louis American,” who interviewed me about Cooke. Essentially, I told the reporter that Janet Cooke should climb back under the rock that she had emerged from.... The recent resignation of Jayson Blair from “The New York Times” for plagiarism did not affect me the same way." Read the column

Mary Curtis, Charlotte Observer: "I vowed I wouldn't add to the thousands of column inches written on Jayson Blair, and what his sins will cost the profession I've devoted my life to. But then I remembered something that happened in 1981, on my first day at The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson." Read the column

Joe Davidson, NPR: "Since the Jayson Blair scandal broke, there's been a rush to blame affirmative action. Because the reporter is black, many have assumed the paper's diversity program is the culprit." 
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Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star: "Every year about now, Kansas City area students interested in journalism careers gather at Rockhurst University to learn from media professionals...this year's workshop will include a session on Jayson Blair." Read the column

Tannette Johnson-Elie: "Jayson Blair, the disgraced New York Times reporter who resigned after a string of fabricated stories, has sparked a debate on diversity when the real issue is poor management. Read the column

 
Loretta Green, San Jose Mercury News: "I am trying to figure out Jayson Blair. He is the New York Times reporter who recently resigned after writing a horrific list of fraudulent stories.

I want to tell him that there are thousands of Americans out here without jobs who are desperate to have a paycheck to feed their families." Read the column

Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Jayson Blair, Jayson Blair, Jayson Blair . . .Two weeks after The New York Times published a jaw-dropping account of how it was duped into publishing false and plagiarized stories by a young African-American reporter, the story continues to fuel opponents of diversity in the nation's newsrooms." Read the column

Gregory Kane, Baltimore Sun: "Want some truth in journalism? Here's some: What was my initial reaction when I read about Blair's sins and the woes of folks at the New York Times? Better them than us. Read the column

Colbert I. King, The Washington Post: "Along with probably every other journalist in the nation, I have been asked how I feel about the Jayson Blair-New York Times affair. I had a chance to tackle that question yesterday when I participated in the commencement ceremonies at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, where I addressed one of the first classes of journalism students to graduate after what the Times has called 'a low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper.' " Read the column

Sheryl McCarthy, Newsday: "The scandal involving disgraced New York Times reporter Jayson Blair had barely broken when people rushed in to finger the great social ills that led to Blair's behavior." Read the column

 
Courtland Milloy, Washington Post: "I met Jayson Blair 10 years ago, when he was a 17-year-old student at Centreville High in Fairfax County and a member of a group called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

He and other young people were selling cookies at a bake sale on a Saturday morning in May to raise money for a classmate who needed medical help. "My feeling is that I will work as hard as I can and let God take care of the rest," Blair told me back then." Read the column

Terry M. Neal, washingtonpost.com: "The plagiarism and deceit of former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair is an affront to journalism. He disgraced an honorable profession that already suffers a credibility problem. His actions have distressed the great many journalists who go to pains every day to uphold the lofty ideals of their chosen craft. Make no mistake: Blair’s editors fell asleep at the switch, allowing him to abuse his authority and responsibility." Read the column

Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: "We have a new breakfast suggestion in the newsroom where I work: Cheez Doodles and booze. We call it "the Jayson Blair diet." Read the column

Les Payne, Newsday: "It is black failure, not success, that fuels the engines of mass media. The model on the track this week is Jayson Blair, who teaches us much more about the whites that he cons than about the blacks that he holds in contempt." Read the column

Brenda Payton, Oakland Tribune: "Jayson Blair scandal, part two. As I anticipated in Tuesday's column, news that Blair, a 27-year-old African-American New York Times reporter, had fabricated scenes and plagiarized stories has sparked a debate about whether the newspaper's push for diversity is behind the scandal." Read the column

James Ragland, Dallas Morning News: "There he is on the cover of the latest Newsweek, smoking a cigarette, looking so smug and hip. And despicable. Whatever sympathy I had for him is gone, up in smoke – thanks to two revealing interviews in Newsweek and The New York Observer." Read the column (Site requires registration)

Stan Simpson, The Hartford Courant: "You're getting ready to ask - Lord knows, everyone else has - so here's my two cents on Jayson Blair:

If this conniving, fabricating, plagiarizing, disgraced former New York Times reporter plays his 15 minutes of infamy just right, he can make his first million by the time he's 30." Read the column

Elmer Smith, Philadelphia Daily News: "The gloating is almost palpable. In one stroke, Jayson Blair did more to damage the New York Times, diversity programs and journalism in general than anything their enemies could conjure up." Read the column

Adrienne Washington, The Washington Times: "A colleague at The Washington Times reminded me that I once had an occasion to reprimand Jayson Blair, the much-maligned reporter for the New York Times charged with plagiarism, among other offenses. It seems that the young Mr. Blair was seated in The Washington Times' newsroom with his feet propped up on a desk and he was leaning back. He was "just chillin,' " as they say." Read the column

DeWayne Wickham, USA Today/Gannett News Service: "The more I read about Jayson Blair, the more I think about Sam Lacy. Lacy's 73 years of journalistic
excellence, not Blair's five years of unethical
behavior, should be the measure of the value of racial
diversity in the newsrooms of this nation." Read the column
 

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