Results matching “jayson blair”

Having blown one of the most coveted jobs in journalism through sheer mendacity, laziness, and drug abuse, former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair has found work coaching others on how to live their lives. It was over six years ago that Blair caused a huge scandal at the Times, after it was discovered that he'd fabricated a number of articles, deeply embarrassing the paper of record and bringing down executive editor Howell Raines and managing editor Gerald M. Boyd with him. But now Blair's turned the beat around and is certified to coach lives, at a mental health practice in northern Virginia—here's his website. Blair tells the AP, "People say, 'Wait a minute. You're a life coach?' That makes no sense. Then they think about my life experiences and what I've been through and they say 'Wait a minute. It does make sense.'" And Blair's boss, psychologist Michael Oberschneider, coos, "Very few people can go through what he did and come back. He really is a success story." Unfortunately, that's exactly what Raines thought before Blair went and burned his house down.

- Looking at the this years tax returns for the folks who would be Governor.

The writers, a he-said-she-said team, use Columbia dorms as pseudonyms say, "Nothing is off-limits. We're not trying to offend people, but there will be people offended. It's hard to be politically correct when talking about anal sex." But some students think it's crass and tacky: A junior tells the Post, "They make it seem that one-night stands are as much a part of the weekend as drinking beer." Well, wait till you graduate, dearie, wait till you graduate, and then'll be a part of your every day.

Gawker points out that Katie freaked out about plastic surgery allegations on Larry King Live last night. Well, for our money, Katie definitely has that soft focus glow thing going on in the interview, but we can't tell if it's Vaseline on the lens or just an effect of her fuzzy cream sweater.

Sexual favors for drugs during a downward spiral? Okay, that seems par for the course. But dragging Kermit the Frog into this? For shame, Jayson Blair!

Jayson's book, Burning Down My Masters' House, is on bookshelves March 9.

Plus the week in full

Blair's media tour starts on March 5, with a Today show appearance.

In a story about the Jack Kelley possible-plagiarism-at-USA Today brouhaha (most elegantly summarized here, by Gawker), check out how the New York Times gets to spin the Jayson Blair incident as what is making other newspapers are relook their own reporters' work:

The New York Crimes tee from Sophomore, at Girlshop. Even though it's cut a little small, it would be perfectly sized for Jayson Blair, the pocket size plagiarist.

A.O. Scott sums up why everyone is so fascinated, especially himself, with The True Story of Stephen Glass, a.k.a Shattered Glass, in his Times review:

Media watchers, mark your calendars: Katie Couric will interview Jayson Blair for a special (Dateline, probably) and Today show appearance next year, timed with the March 9 release of Blair's book about his, ahem, escapades/downward spiral at the Times, according to Lloyd Grove. Couric tells Grove, "Hopefully, it will be a full account. I'm especially interested in this because I came of age during the whole Janet Cooke controversy, and this seemed to have echoes of that."

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- Turning a city into a big game

The Post's Keith Kelly has a scoop on Jayson Blair's first piece of writing post-Times: His Jane magazine article is about mistakes he made and suggests readers not repeat them. Like getting ticketed for speeding in the company car, and not paying the ticket, only to have your company crack down. In the scheme of things, that's pretty ho-hum. He also says, as Kelly puts it, "wait a few years and build up some good will before letting their eccentricities show" in the office. That Gothamist can whole-heartedly agree with - why show all your cards at once? Having a job is like dating someone you really like: Wait until the last possible minute to reveal the crazy.

." And what about that "unique perspective" Blair could offer?

Ooh, it seems like FilmJerk.com has the inside tip on what Gothamist has been waiting for, as it's two of our favorite things: The Law & Order episode that rips the Jayson Blair scandal from the headlines. But the episode will supposedly feature the murder of a fabricating reporter. Wolf Productions would not confirm the episode was in the works, but, really, this premise is so ripe for L&O. We wonder if real Times reporters are trying to get roles on this episode. Gothamist would like to be the bickering friends who stumble across the dead reporters' body, but we'd settle for being nosy onlookers at the crime scene. [Via NY Daily News]

Okay, let's get this straight: Jayson Blair now has two big media gigs. One will be reviewing the movie based on the lying lie-y ways of fellow liar, Stephen Glass, for Esquire; Blair was hired for his "unique perspective" or some such PR blah blah to aptly accompany the loads of press this hiring would elicit. That's pretty meta, Gothamist must say. Brilliantly played, Granger, brilliantly played.

Yesterday's Jim Rutenberg piece about CBS trying to land the Jessica Lynch interview by flexing its synergies with in the Viacom family (MTV, Simon & Schuster) was pretty disturbing, but not that surprising, given the incestuous nature of the media industries.

The Post says that New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. denies that his family made him ask Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd to resign. He had, famously, right after the Jayson Blair scandal emerged, said that he would not accept Raines' and Boyd's resignations. "Towards the end of last week, and even more towards the beginning of this week, it became clear to them, and in turn to me, that the best thing for this paper would be for them to resign," Sulzberger tells Newsweek.

After all the hubbub about the resignations of New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd, Jayson Blair has been the hot get, since it's widely considered that his behavior caused their downfall. Newsday interviewed Blair in SoHo yesterday and reports that Blair said "he awoke at 11 a.m. Thursday, washed down a mood stabilizer with cranberry juice, then turned on his computer and learned about the resignations through an e-mail from a CNN producer."

Disgraced reporter and Times shake-up catalyst Jayson Blair let CNN know how he felt about Howell Raines' and Gerald Boyd's resignations in an email: "I am sorry to hear that more people have fallen in this sequence of events that I had unleashed. I wish the rolling heads had stopped with mine." Gothamist notes that Blair certainly is a writer in need of a good copy editor.

Daily News film critic Jake Matthews considers the possibility of a Jayson Blair movie. He thinks comedy is that way to go, perhaps as a "newsroom update of "Faust" might work, with Mephistopheles represented by (take your pick of Blair's excuses) deadline pressure, drugs, alcohol, undisciplined genius, institutional racism, asleep-at-the-wheel editors or - my favorite - the schizophrenic urge to kill the journalist so the man might live." Matthews also calls Stephen Glass' book, The Fabulist, a "theya culpa." Hee.

Sridhar Pappu says that the young reporters at the New York Times have drafted a memo to management, to improve how the paper treats the youngings, including suggestions like ending "favoritism in the newsroom, develop[ing] transparent procedures for filling open positions, and provid[ing] other amenities for young reporters eager for advancement" - to avoid Jayson Blair like incidents. Jennifer 8. Lee tells Pappu the memo "was more about thoughtfulness than it was about griping." What a novel approach - thoughtfulness versus griping. In a side note, Gothamist enjoys reading Lee, one of the memo's draftters, and loves her middle initial.

The fallout from the Jayson Blair Affair has apparently become toxic, as Times employees have been issued gas masks. For the "unlikely event of smoke, nuclear, biological or chemical contamination," employees are being trained on how to use the hoods, and Gothamist learned the hood of choice at the Times is the spiffy Evolution 1000 Emergency Escape Hood. Employees must attend a training session before getting one, so we suspect these sessions are covert morale building sessions ("We're all going to die, so let's get past the this incident...").

It's the Very Special Jayson Blair Issue of The Observer this week:

How many words does it take to say your employee didn't do his job and lied to you?

On yesterday's Reliable Sources, Howard Kurtz covered "The Crisis at the Times" - the fallout from the Jayson Blair fiasco. Among his guests were Times columnist Clyde Haberman, Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker, and the NY Post's media reporter, Keith Kelly.

According to today's Times, the Assistant U.S. Attorney in N.Y.C. has begun an investigation of Jayson Blair: Prosecutor Seeks Information on Resigned Times Reporter. What could they possibly charge him with? Maybe some variety of fraud? Unlikely: it'll be hard to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was intentionally defrauding people or just being sloppy and lazy. And if sloppy, lazy journalism is now fraud, a lot of people should be worried, including Fox News, NY Post, USA Today, and um, Gothamist.