# Jayson Blair Exponentially Increases His Ass-Hattedness **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 25, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323 "2003-05-25T01:09:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/1 "2003-05-25T01:09:17Z")
Remember the ex-_NY Times_ “reporter” Jayson Blair? Well, I just saw this little tidbit on the AP Newswire: "Blair is already floating a book proposal about the scandal, according to _The Washington Post_. The proposed book is entitled _Burning Down My Master’s House_, an angry rant at the paper that he called “my tormentor, my other drug, my slavemaster,” the \*Post \*said. The proposal portrays Blair as a black man “who rose from the fields and got a place in the master’s house and then burned it down the only way he knew how,” according to the _Post_. Blair’s literary agent David Vigliano did not return a call for comment Saturday. –There aren’t enough eye-rolling smilies in the _world_ . . . ---
**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 25, 2003, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/2 "2003-05-25T01:13:14Z")
At least one of the other Pit threads touched on this. If such a book is actually written by him, I don’t think it would sell well at all. If he really wants to go that route, he should stop giving interviews. The more that people see him as a nut screaming his head off for no reason - Lear railing against the storm - the less people will be inclined to buy his book. With any luck, it’ll be in the remainder bin within a few weeks of publication. If it happens. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/3 "2003-05-25T01:14:39Z")
Surely it will be ghost written. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/4 "2003-05-25T01:25:28Z")
And I’d want a **careful** fact-checker! ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/5 "2003-05-25T01:25:56Z")
I can’t even tell where to begin mocking him. Amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/6 "2003-05-25T01:36:06Z")
Eve, FYI you are 1001 posts away from ten thousand. (In case you are the type to celebrate milestones) ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/7 "2003-05-25T01:42:51Z")
This fuckwit is going to make sure a _book_ is written about his own lack of professional ethics?!? May his nuts roast over Hell’s own open fire! ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/8 "2003-05-25T01:47:45Z")
Why doesn’t it surprise me… … right. 'cause it’s 2003. It’s always the other guy’s fault, and my fuck-ups are actually acts of resistance and defiance. Of course. AND I deserve a nice big check for it. And the only “disgrace” is in failing to spin the facts to my favor. ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/9 "2003-05-25T02:26:17Z")
According to [Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2808702), the offers may not exactly be rolling in for his little magnum opus. Good news indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Denis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5e9695/32.png) [@Denis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Denis)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/10 "2003-05-25T02:38:45Z")
Maybe he’s going for Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton and their bigotted ilks’ market. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/11 "2003-05-25T03:02:03Z")
" . . . Bob Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, said in 21st Century America, there was no telling who might profit from their 15 minutes of fame. “This is a fascinating story of an anti-hero undermining a big American institution. It’s a rip-roaring tale of the young century.” Thompson noted that Blair was “a handsome guy, a lovable scoundrel and in an era where the Jerry Springer show can become a phenomenon then why not?” –“Lovable scoundrel?” Yeah, and Boss Tweed was America’s Sweetheart. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/12 "2003-05-25T03:05:11Z")
That’s the cool thing about being black–you can always blame your shortcomings on The Man. Blair didn’t plagiarize because he’s a dishonest fuckup, it was a revolutionary act of resistance against white oppression (the same white oppression that gave him chance after chance to straighten up) ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/13 "2003-05-25T03:31:50Z")
A slightly expanded excerpt from [here](http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/nation_and_world/article/0,1426,MCA_454_1986177,00.html) (link will be active for about two months): > [@](#): > > Blair casts his story as one of “a young black man” told he would never succeed “by everyone from his white second-grade teacher to his editor at The Times, who rose from the fields and got a place in the master’s house and then burned it down the only way he knew how.” > > Blair grew up in a middle-class family in Centreville, Va. His father is now the Smithsonian Institution’s inspector general. Rose from the fields and got a place in the master’s house, indeed. Thanks, asshole, the field of journalism desperately needs more fucking bad press. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/14 "2003-05-25T04:25:13Z")
Much more level-headed interview found [here](http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/frontpage5.asp). Still a total asshole, of course, but for this little paper, which covers the media very extensively, he doesn’t mention the racial angle much and does go more into his cocaine and booze habits. But he’s clean now–he just came out of six whole days of rehab!–so the statements in the OP couldn’t possibly have been made in a state of enraged substance-fueled derangement, right? Sheesh. Trouble is that the more controversy, the faster this jerk will be able to laugh his way to the bank. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/15 "2003-05-25T04:41:34Z")
So is he just pulling the black angle to try and drag race into it, or does he have an actual gripe of some kind (weak or otherwise)? I haven’t kept up with it. ---
**Author:** ![TaxGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@TaxGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaxGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/16 "2003-05-25T04:47:03Z")
That’s be the former, Bob. ---
**Author:** ![j\_kat\_251](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71c47a/32.png) [@j\_kat\_251](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_kat_251)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/17 "2003-05-25T04:48:05Z")
LOL BEST JOURNALIST EVER INTEGRITY++ [neo] Whoa. [/neo] Didn’t America get rid of that “us against the black us” stuff after 9/11 NEVER FORGET NEVER FORGET, when it became “us be the bomb, yo”. Also, many movies involving a rich old white guy and a sassy black “sister” from the 'hood. [monty burns] Scour the American League, the National League, the Negro Leagues [/monty burns] So why are they playing up the “master’s house” crap? Preview=less racial angle in another interview. OH WELL. It is still hilarious. Making up the sappiest things. OH NO TEH MAN SWELLED WITH EMOTION AS HE SURVEYED HIS COTTON DOMAIN ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/18 "2003-05-25T08:16:02Z")
**j\_kat\_251** , I really didn’t understand most of your post, but we seem to be generally in agreement. Y’know, Blair is beginning to remind me a bit of Peter Fallow from _Bonfire of the Vanities_. Anyone else picking up that vibe? (I didn’t see the movie, but did read the book.) ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/19 "2003-05-25T09:25:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Blair grew up in a middle-class family in Centreville, Va. His father is now the Smithsonian Institution’s inspector general. Good lord. I used to live in Centreville. It ain’t exactly the ghetto. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*That’s the cool thing about being black–you can always blame your shortcomings on The Man. Blair didn’t plagiarize because he’s a dishonest fuckup, it was a revolutionary act of resistance against white oppression (the same white oppression that gave him chance after chance to straighten up) \*\* There ya go. The drugs-and-alcohol angle is interesting too. Sounds like a sick individual blaming everyone but himself, from Whitey to “idiot editors”, for his own willful misconduct. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323/20 "2003-05-25T09:28:33Z")
I wonder when he’s going to claim that the whole thing was one big social experiment. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayson-blair-exponentially-increases-his-ass-hattedness/177323.md?page=2)