# Blair: "I'm not even sorry." **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 21, 2003, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527 "2003-05-21T11:19:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![deb2world](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/21 "2003-05-22T00:56:22Z")
I heard he has been appointed to Minister of Information. ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/22 "2003-05-22T01:07:24Z")
> [@](#): > > But Jayson Blair is acting like… like… like a white person, almost! By that, I mean someone like the Enron execs, someone who doesn’t feel the familial nature of the black community like every single other black person in this country (Africans possibly excepted–but even then they feel affinities to their home countries.) Wow, that’s very enlightened. “Africans” even get to feel affinities to their home countries, but we white people are just sitting around waving the Confederate Flag and stealing money, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Super\_Gnat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/23 "2003-05-22T03:17:29Z")
> [@](#): > > Me: > By that, I mean someone like the Enron execs Even in the midst of my **stream of consciousness rant** I qualified my statement. Perhaps to qualify further: Blair is acting like someone with no feeling of community with others. Like the Enron execs. Because Western culture is generally rather individualistic, and because white cultures are dominant in my part of ther world, I hypothesize that _some_ white people do not feel the identification with a larger community that all the black people I’ve ever met (with the apparent exception of Blair) have demonstrated to my satisfaction. IMHO, stuff like Blair crowing over his “outfoxing” the execs is only done by those who feel no accountability towards others. ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/24 "2003-05-22T03:34:12Z")
I got the part where you tried to justify it. Unfortunately, I still think it falls short. No one here would have been very amused if I’d insulted black people by associating them with someone they found distasteful, someone who’d broken the law…and especially if I JUSTIFIED it by saying hey, I was just going with my stream of conciousness. I **agree** with you that Blair is a dishonest person, a snake even, but that doesn’t liken him to a “white” person. It likens him to a criminal. And by the way, most of the white people I know are very community/family oriented. Maybe you live up North? :b ~J ---
**Author:** ![Super\_Gnat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/25 "2003-05-22T04:29:52Z")
Sorry if I offended you then. ---
**Author:** ![Super\_Gnat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/26 "2003-05-22T04:36:20Z")
I’m sorry; that sounded horrible and curt. You are correct of course, and I retract my comparison of him to “white people” (though the one about Enron execs still stands :)). ---
**Author:** ![bovinespy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@bovinespy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bovinespy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/27 "2003-05-22T08:13:28Z")
This is my first post, but I just wanted to add that I also think Jayson Blair is a criminal embarassment to the “institution” of journalism. That, and - oh yes - I would fucking puke out my entire GI tract if a film deal ever came to fruition.☹ :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/28 "2003-05-22T08:23:05Z")
Can somone tell me, very briefly, what this guy did?I have tried to find out, but can only find extremely emotional outpourings and rants about whatever it was he did. What I gather is that he faked and plagerised articles for a newspaper yeah? K, thats bad but surely there must be something more? People make it sound like he was peeling babies and stamping on kitten-heads. What is it I am missing? ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/29 "2003-05-22T09:19:08Z")
> [@](#): > > What kind of bullshit is “I fooled some of the most brilliant minds in journalism?” Just that… bullshit. Because he DIDN’T fool ANYBODY. He was found out to be the fraud he is. If he really “fooled” some of the most brilliant minds in journalism, then how come he doesn’t have a job anymore? Delusional smegmatic flicktit. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/30 "2003-05-22T09:41:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Blair was more restrained in a separate statement to CNN on Monday, saying he is “sorry” and wants to write his story – he has hired an agent to entertain book and movie offers – so that "others will learn from my mistakes Who would be dumb enough to buy a book from an admitted liar and plagiarist? Who would be dumb enough to offer a liar and plagiarist a deal to write a freaking book on his life? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/31 "2003-05-22T09:45:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Iteki \* > K, thats bad but surely there must be something more? People make it sound like he was peeling babies and stamping on kitten-heads. What is it I am missing? He committed probably the most heinous act of journalistic fraud in the 20th century. [Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception](http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/national/11PAPE.html?ex=1053748800&en=77775532e1d829ad&ei=5070) > [@](#): > > The reporter, Jayson Blair, 27, misled readers and Times colleagues with dispatches that purported to be from Maryland, Texas and other states, when often he was far away, in New York. He fabricated comments. He concocted scenes. He lifted material from other newspapers and wire services. He selected details from photographs to create the impression he had been somewhere or seen someone, when he had not. > … > In an inquiry focused on correcting the record and explaining how such fraud could have been sustained within the ranks of The Times, the Times journalists have so far uncovered new problems in at least 36 of the 73 articles Mr. Blair wrote since he started getting national reporting assignments late last October. > … > By March, he was lying in his articles and to his editors about being at a court hearing in Virginia, in a police chief’s home in Maryland and in front of a soldier’s home in West Virginia. By the end of April another newspaper was raising questions about plagiarism. And by the first of May, his career at The Times was over. > … > The scene, as described by Mr. Blair in an article that The Times published on April 19, was as false as it was riveting. In fact, it was false from its very first word, its uppercase dateline, which told readers that the reporter was in Bethesda and had witnessed the scene. He had not. You get the idea. Go read the article and tell me it doesn’t turn your stomach. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/32 "2003-05-22T09:47:45Z")
> [@](#): > > 20th century. Of course, that should read, “In the last century,” seeing as his trangressions occured in the 21st. Stoopid me. That’s what I get for posting at half-past five in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/33 "2003-05-22T10:10:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spooje \* > \*\*Who would be dumb enough to buy a book from an admitted liar and plagiarist? Who would be dumb enough to offer a liar and plagiarist a deal to write a freaking book on his life? \*\* Spooje, you drooling moron, _ **this is America!** _ Land of ‘Reality’ TV, Springer, etc. Go slap yourself silly and come back to me on the above questions. I predict he has a bright future as a pundit ahead of him. Now, if he’s really clever, after taking a liberal line in his first book, he will confess all in a second book, and flip to being a conservative, upon which he will be able to rake in the dough from the ditto heads. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/34 "2003-05-22T10:22:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Who would be dumb enough to offer a liar and plagiarist a deal to write a freaking book on his life? Fiction publishers. ---
**Author:** ![litost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@litost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/litost)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/35 "2003-05-22T10:40:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Collounsbury \* > I predict he has a bright future as a pundit ahead of him. Now, if he’s really clever, after taking a liberal line in his first book, he will confess all in a second book, and flip to being a conservative, upon which he will be able to rake in the dough from the ditto heads. No, no, not enough money in that. The first book won’t sell. The first book should be called “Race and Deception in the Liberal Media”. It should be a sloppily written diatribe against the NYT and the role his race played in the whole story. It will be, and this is a guarantee, on the NYT Bestseller’s List. He should go around the country promoting the book. Loyal conservatives will pack the halls and applaud his anti-Affirmative Action courage. He ought to mix that up with a temp career as a Fox News “media analyst”. Eventually, he’ll get his own show, “Caution: The Blair Zone”. By this time, no one will remember his past and he will really be laughing his ass off. ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/36 "2003-05-22T11:10:00Z")
**friedo** , thanks for the link. K, so seems I had the gist of it more or less right, he lied and made shit up. Bad journalist. His biggest crime imho is that he damaged the credibility of the press. It doesn’t turn my stomach no. I can think of at least 5 things I have seen, heard or read about today that upset me more. Again tho, thanks for the link, it seems very thorough. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/37 "2003-05-22T11:16:36Z")
Iteki, the point is that the press has been an institution that, more or less, people can depend on to get things right. Yes, they misstate things. Yes, they blow things out of proportion. But most often these things occur not because the reporter or editor wanted to mislead their readers but through some error of reporting. What Blair did was intentionally mislead millions of people for his own gain. He didn’t just damage the credibility of the press, he obliterated it. For over a hundred years the Times has been the de facto paper of record for the U.S. With this scandal, it won’t reattain that status for a while. He basically destroyed everything that paper ever stood for; in fact, he destroyed every ideal that every paper, every journalist, aims for in the business. He betrayed the trust of every person who’s ever talked to a reporter. Now reporters from the Times will be run through a Blair filter by prospective interviewees - let’s say a reporter needs to follow up on a police scandal and interviews a desk sergeant. The policeman will now look very skeptical at the reporter - will he intentionally misstate the sergeant’s words for his own gain? ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/38 "2003-05-23T01:02:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Super Gnat \* > \*\*I’m sorry; that sounded horrible and curt. You are correct of course, and I retract my comparison of him to “white people” (though the one about Enron execs still stands :)). \*\* ~smiles~ Thank you. And you are welcome to compare him to Enron slime. Here in Houston, thousands of people were affected by what they did. ~J ---
**Author:** ![Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satisfying_Andy_Licious)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/39 "2003-05-23T06:41:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Super Gnat \* > \*\*I mean, pretty much all of the slave descendents in this country feel some level of group affinity. Even the idiots like Al Sharpton obviously feel they are working to benefit the black community (albeit with no small benefit to themselves). But Jayson Blair is acting like… like… like a white person, almost! By that, I mean someone like the Enron execs, \*\* Have to wonder how quickly I’d be kicked off the board for saying something like that about black people. I’m glad you apologized, but it was a seriously fucked up thing to say. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527/40 "2003-05-23T15:36:38Z")
\*\*But Jayson Blair is acting like… like… like a white person, almost! By that, I mean someone like the Enron execs, someone who doesn’t feel the familial nature of the black community like every single other black person in this country \*\* Come on now, SuperGnat. We’re plenty corrupt and exploitative when dealing with each other. Elijah Muhammed and the other leadership ripping off the NOI rank and file (and then having Malcom assassinated when he challenged their corruption). Ben Chavous and his NAACP debacles. Henry Lyons and the National Baptist Convention scandals. Marion Barry. Coleman Young. The pointless murders of Tupac and Biggie. (Why talk things over when you can shoot them out?). The Baptist ministers lining up to support Mike Tyson after he was charged with assaulting Desiree Washington. And so on… Patriotism (family feeling) is the often the last refuge of scoundrels. Blair is pond scum. But a shameless, lying, drug abusing, bullying toady, with a talent for inventing convincingly banal fiction should do quite well in Hollywood. If he can stay out of jail, he’ll be running a studio in five years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blair-im-not-even-sorry/176527.md?page=3)