Tuesday, December 09, 2003

What a Waste: The cover of Jayson Blair's book, titled "Burning Down My Masters' House: My Life at The New York Times", features a mock-up of The New York Times being burned and a stern picture of Blair staring at the camera.

The racial implications of the book's title should be incredibly offensive to any African American. A sociopathic, compulsive fraud is comparing his squandered opportunities at The New York Times to slavery?

Jayson Blair, of course, is the guy who was caught fabricating information and plagiarizing other stories on many occasions during his tenure at The New York Times. A Reuters story said:

Blair, who is black, has cited racism, junk food, and mental illness as the reasons for having invented scores of stories and sources during his four years at the nation's most influential newspaper.

At the time, people said Blair was given so many opportunities, despite his weaknesses, because of affirmative action. But I think affirmative action had little to do with this. There were other minorities who were overlooked as the editors saw promise in Blair. In the end, it was his smarmy charm that opened doors. Instead of excelling, he duped the people who were trying to help him. It went unnoticed for so long because most people couldn't imagine the extent of fraud Blair was perpetrating.

Then he received a $500,000 advance from a publisher to blame his troubles on racism. There are many instances of real racism in America, and we should be vigilant to keep improving racial relations. But Blair's crying wolf and desperately appealing to the black community for help should be rejected. I want to hear black leaders condemn Blair for his insensitivity to his own race.

This guy lied, cheated, used people, and intentionally hurt others. I don't think he has changed his ways. So I have no plans to read the lies he's publishing in his book.