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NY Times admits reporter's fabrications
N.Y. Times Uncovers Dozens Of Faked Stories by Reporter
New York Times Details Deceit by Staff Reporter, May 12, 2003, WSJ
Good Morning America -- NY Times ‘Black Eye’ Nothing New
Another Reporter Accuses Jennings of Liberal Bias
 May 11, 2003Witnesses and Documents Unveil Deceptions in a Reporter's Work
Detective Says Sniper Suspect Was Interrogated After He Requested Lawyer APRIL 29, 2003 DENIED REPORTS Michael S. Arif, a lawyer for Lee Malvo, the younger of two men charged in the Washington-area sniper attacks last fall, was quoted as saying: "Not one of Mr. Malvo's five attorneys who had been appointed by the court to represent him was given any information about the action taken." Through a law partner, Thomas B. Walsh, Mr. Arif said he had not spoken to Mr. Blair that day or uttered the quoted words to anyone. FACTUAL ERRORS The first sentence of the article stated that Detective June Boyle, the lead Fairfax County investigator in the sniper case, testified that she continued to interrogate Mr. Malvo without a lawyer after he had requested one. While Detective Boyle acknowledged in her testimony that Mr. Malvo had asked a question — "Do I get to see my attorneys?" — she did not say that he had invoked his right to counsel. In a later ruling, the judge in the case found that Mr. Malvo's question was not an unambiguous request for the assistance of counsel. In Military Wards, Questions and Fears From the Wounded APRIL 19, 2003 WHEREABOUTS The scenes described in the article took place ostensibly inside a ward of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. But Lt. Cmdr. Jerry Rostad, the public affairs officer for the center, said there was no record that Mr. Blair had visited or interviewed patients there. DENIED REPORTS Of the six wounded soldiers quoted in what Mr. Blair described as "long conversations" at the medical center, one, Lance Cpl. James Klingel, said he was interviewed by Mr. Blair, but by telephone from his home in Lodi, Ohio, after he had been discharged. Telephone records described by Times officials suggest that Mr. Blair made this 27-minute call from his desk at the paper in New York on April 17. Three men — Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, Lt. Col. Jonathan Ewers and Hospitalman Brian Alaniz — said they had not spoken to Mr. Blair, Commander Rostad said. (Two others could not be reached.) In a telephone interview, Corporal Klingel said that Mr. Blair had manufactured or embellished parts of the article. He said that, for example, the following quotation attributed to him by Mr. Blair had been made up: "I am still looking over my shoulder. I am sure I will be standing on the back porch and worry about who might come shooting at me out of the bush." Corporal Klingel also disputed the portion of the article that described him as "disheartened because he will most likely limp the rest of his life and need to use a cane." He said he was neither limping nor using a cane now. In addition, he denied he had told Mr. Blair he was having nightmares about his tour in Iraq. And he said he had not spoken to Mr. Blair about "his mind wandering from images of his girlfriend back in Ohio to the sight of an exploding fireball to the sounds of twisting metal," as Mr. Blair described. Because he interviewed Corporal Klingel by phone, Mr. Blair was not in a position to describe him as he did in his article: speaking from a hospital bed and contemplating a visit to a chaplain, as Sergeant Alva lay in the bed next to him. Reached by phone, Sergeant Alva's mother, Lois, declined to comment. But Commander Rostad said that Sergeant Alva contended that he did not say any of the comments attributed to him by Mr. Blair. These included the following: "But in more private moments last week in the hospital, Sergeant Alva acknowledged that he had anger that he directed inward and toward the news media that he said were too hard on soldiers and a public that he said did not really understand the costs of war. `There is no point in explaining how I feel,' he said, `because no one really is going to be able to understand it.' " Later in the article, Mr. Blair wrote: "Sergeant Alva, who has had 10 operations since stepping on the mine on March 22, blames himself for the injuries of Seaman Alaniz, who is 28. If he had not been dumb enough to step on the mine, Sergeant Alva concluded, his friend would have never been injured." FACTUAL ERRORS Mr. Blair erroneously described Hospitalman Alaniz as a seaman and as being "down the hall" from Sergeant Alva and Corporal Klingel at the medical center. Hospitalman Alaniz was discharged on April 9, five days before Corporal Klingel's arrival, Commander Rostad said. In addition, the article stated that Sergeant Alva had lost his right leg; his right leg had been amputated below the knee. A Couple Separated by War While United in Their Fears APRIL 15, 2003 WHEREABOUTS The article's dateline — the label of the place and, ordinarily, the time where the reporting was done — was given as Jacksonville, N.C., April 11. According to The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, "Because believable firsthand news gathering is The Times's hallmark, datelines must scrupulously specify when and where the reporting took place." But in a telephone interview, Sarai Thompson, whose husband is a marine stationed in Iraq, said she had been interviewed by Mr. Blair by phone, not in person. Former P.O.W. Return Home for Treatment at Army Hospital APRIL 13, 2003 FACTUAL ERRORS Mr. Blair wrote that while waiting for Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch to arrive back in the United States, her family stayed at the Melrose House, an Army hotel in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. There is no hotel of that name in the complex. For One Pastor, the War Hits Home APRIL 7, 2003 WHEREABOUTS It does not appear that Mr. Blair was at the church service in Cleveland on April 6 that he described. The associate minister described in the piece, the Rev. Tandy Sloan, said in a telephone interview that he did not recall meeting, seeing or being interviewed by him. A Times official recently checked with the hotel that Mr. Blair said he had stayed at, but it had no record of his stay. PLAGIARISM Mr. Blair appears to have borrowed substantial portions of his
article from an article in The
Ms. Jones wrote: "Now, as the Rev. Larry Howard opened the prayer service for Brandy Sloan, reminding several hundred congregants that `God is bigger than Hussein,' Tandy Sloan closed his eyes and bowed his head." She later wrote: "His broad shoulders slumped, and in four pews filled with his extended family, he could hear the women softly weeping. Then Howard invited Sloan to speak, and he climbed behind the pulpit." She also described: " `We still have hope,' he began. `Hope hasn't gone anywhere.' " Mr. Blair also used, without attribution, quotations that had appeared in articles by The Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Daily News in New York. DENIED REPORTS Mr. Blair described Mr. Sloan, at the April 6 service, as "gazing at a photograph" of his son inside his Bible. Mr. Sloan said he did not have a photograph of his son inside his Bible at the service. FACTUAL ERRORS Mr. Blair referred to Mr. Sloan's church at one point as "Historical Greater Friendship Baptist Church." It is "Historic Greater Friendship Baptist Church," which he rendered correctly later in the article. Family Begins Trip to Rejoin Freed Soldier APRIL 6, 2003 WHEREABOUTS: An article about the decision by the parents of Private Lynch to fly to Germany to meet her while she was undergoing treatment there carried a dateline of Charleston, W.Va., April 5. But the hotels in the area have no record of Mr. Blair's checking in. And an editor in the national department of The Times said he saw Mr. Blair in the newsroom in New York shortly after 4 that afternoon. The editor, who had been under the impression Mr. Blair was in Charleston when he spoke to him late that morning, asked Mr. Blair how he had returned to New York so quickly. Mr. Blair said he had taken a 2:30 p.m. flight. There does not appear to have been such a flight that day. And there are calls made from his desk extension to towns in West Virginia beginning at 2:20 p.m., phone records indicated. FACTUAL ERRORS The article stated that Private Lynch's family had flown
to Germany on a commercial flight; Brandi Lynch, Private Lynch's sister,
said in a telephone interview that the
Gifts and Offers for Book Deals Arrive at Rescued Private's House as She Has Surgery APRIL 5, 2003 WHEREABOUTS For this article, Mr. Blair reported ostensibly from Palestine, W.Va., on April 4. But local hotels have no record of Mr. Blair's visiting around that time. Mr. Blair filed an article the same day with a dateline of Fairfax, Va., reporting on the legal proceedings against the Washington-area sniper suspects. PLAGIARISM Mr. Blair quoted Private Lynch's father, Gregory Lynch Sr., as saying that he was "truly grateful" to the Iraqi lawyer who led United States forces to his daughter, and that the lawyer "would get a world of hugs out of that heroic deal." Mr. Lynch made those statements to other news organizations, not in an interview with Mr. Blair, a review of other publications showed. Mr. Lynch told The Washington Post that he never spoke to Mr. Blair. And Brandi Lynch told The Times that her father never spoke to Mr. Blair. Tapes Hint at Possible Flaws in Sniper Suspect Confession APRIL 5, 2003 FACTUAL ERRORS Detective Boyle is described as a 21-year veteran of the Fairfax County Police Department. She is a 26-year veteran, according to Lt. Amy Lubas, the commander of the department's public information office. Freed Soldier Is in Better Condition Than First Thought, Father Says APRIL 4, 2003 WHEREABOUTS As with all articles Mr. Blair filed from Palestine, W.Va., no hotels in Mineral Wells, the nearby town where many reporters covering the Lynch family stayed, have records of Mr. Blair's reserving or paying for a room. PLAGIARISM Quotations appear to have come from an Associated Press article by Allison Barker that was written on April 3. For example, Ms. Barker related the following quotation and description of Mr. Lynch: " `They have successfully done one surgery on her,' he said, smiling as he joked about pink casts for her broken limbs. `There will be other surgeries, and it's going to take time and patience. She's in real good spirits.' " Mr. Blair used most of the quotation verbatim, but slightly changed the description of Mr. Lynch, writing that he "smiled as he joked about her getting pink casts for her broken legs." Mr. Blair also wrote of Private Lynch, "She's in really good spirits." Rescue in Iraq and a ‘Big Stir' in West Virginia APRIL 3, 2003 WHEREABOUTS Hotels in the vicinity of Palestine, W.Va., had no record of Mr. Blair. His co-writer, as well as a photographer who was stationed at the Lynch home for The Times, said they did not see Mr. Blair. Mr. Blair gave his editors and his co-writer a number where he could be reached on April 2, the day the article was written. The number belonged to Glenda and Donald Nelson, friends of the Lynch family; the Nelsons said that they never met or spoke to Mr. Blair. The Nelsons live in Marmet, W.Va., about a two-hour drive from Palestine. PLAGIARISM Mr. Blair described the Nelsons' talking about Private Lynch and a letter they had received from her: "Ms. Nelson and her husband, Donald, sat in their kitchen today, staring at their own letter from Private Lynch, which arrived on Monday. In the time it took the letter, dated March 18, to make its way from Kuwait, Private Lynch's unit, the 507th Maintenance Company, was attacked during some of the first fighting in Nasiriya, she was declared missing in action for five days and yellow ribbons began to pop up all over town. " `We just bawled like babies when we got the letter,' Mr. Nelson said today. `It just tore us apart to think of how scared she was or what might have happened to her.' " In an Associated Press article that ran on April 2, Ms. Barker wrote: "Before the war started, Private Lynch wrote a letter to family friends Glenda and Don Nelson. The letter, dated March 18, arrived on Monday. `She said she was ready to go to war and was just waiting on President Bush's word, but I could tell she was scared,' said Don Nelson. `We bawled like babies when we read it. It tore us up.' " Mr. Blair also used details and quotations about a shopping trip to Charleston that was recounted in an Associated Press article from March 25. In addition, Mr. Nelson's quotation about Private Lynch being "a wholesome West Virginia country girl" appears to have been adapted from a comment in the April 2 Associated Press article made by Lorene Cumbridge, a cousin of Private Lynch. "She's just a West Virginia country girl. Warm-hearted. Outgoing," Ms Cumbridge said. The Last Stop on the Journey Home APRIL 1, 2003 WHEREABOUTS Mr. Blair's article, about the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, took place ostensibly at the base on March 31. Second Lt. Cathy L. Milhoan, a spokeswoman for the 512th Airlift Wing at the base, whom Mr. Blair interviewed by phone around that time, said in a telephone interview that she was "100 percent" sure that Mr. Blair had not visited the base to interview people for this article. DENIED REPORTS Mr. Blair quoted Lieutenant Milhoan as saying of the reservists who staff the military mortuary: "They have really been taxed both logistically and emotionally." Lieutenant Milhoan said that Mr. Blair had inserted the reference to logistics into her comment and that she had spent considerable time during the interview explaining that the Iraq operation presented no logistical challenge to the reservists working at the mortuary. "There were plenty of people," she said. "This is our mission. This is what we do." She said she called Mr. Blair on April 1 to discuss her concern with him, after he had e-mailed her a link to the article on The New York Times Web site. Lieutenant Milhoan said he had apologized. FACTUAL ERRORS Mr. Blair wrote that the base, to assist in the handling of soldiers' remains, "brought in 58 reservists from a local wing in Delaware and eight more from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland." Shortly after the article appeared, Lieutenant Milhoan told Mr. Blair that the correct figures were 42 Dover reservists and 16 Andrews Air Force Base reservists, according to an e-mail message that a Times official described. For Families of the Dead, a Fateful Knock on the Door MARCH 31, 2003 FACTUAL ERRORS Mr. Blair embellished certain details while incorporating notes from a co-author into the article. He wrote that Stacy L. Menusa and her 3-year-old son were "standing in the driveway of her parents' home" when two marines arrived with news of her husband's death. Ms. Menusa, in a recent interview, said that she and her son were inside the house at the time. Relatives of Missing Soldiers Dread Hearing Worse News MARCH 27, 2003 WHEREABOUTS Although this article about the relatives of soldiers missing in combat in Iraq carried a March 26 dateline from Palestine, W.Va., Mr. Blair's cellphone records, described to reporters by William E. Schmidt, an associate managing editor of The Times, indicate that he was in New York. In addition, several people at the Lynch home — including photographers and other reporters — said they had not met or seen Mr. Blair there. And the hotels nearest to Palestine have no record of Mr. Blair's staying there. PLAGIARISM In the article, Mr. Blair described the anguish of the Estrella family whose son was one of the eight members of the 507th Maintenance Company listed by the Pentagon as whereabouts unknown. " `We don't know anything. Not knowing anything is so hard,' said Ruben Estrella, whose 18-year-old son, Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto of El Paso, is among the members of the 507th listed as missing. `I can't take this waiting.' " An Associated Press article, written from El Paso on March 26, quoted Ruben Estrella as saying, "We don't know anything, not knowing anything. It's been three days of waiting." DENIED REPORTS Mr. Blair quoted Kimberly Cieslak, whose brother, Sgt. Donald Walters, was missing. Ms. Cieslak said she did not recall speaking to Mr. Blair, although she did remember speaking to a different reporter for The Times for a later story. FACTUAL ERRORS Mr. Blair wrote that tobacco fields and cattle pastures were visible from the porch of the Lynch home. Brandi Lynch said there is no such view. Mr. Blair wrote that Private Lynch's brother was in the National Guard in West Virginia. He is actually in the Army. Mr. Blair described a dream of Private Lynch's mother, Deadra Lynch; Brandi Lynch said her mother had not described any such dream. Mr. Blair also misspelled Deadra Lynch's first name. Watching, and Praying, as a Son's Fate Unfolds MARCH 25, 2003 WHEREABOUTS Mr. Blair does not appear to have traveled to Hunt Valley, Md., on March 24, as the article indicated. The article included interviews with the members of only one family — Martha and Michael Gardner, the parents of Cpl. Michael P. Gardner II, a marine in Iraq, and his sister Cara. Martha Gardner said that he did not visit their home and that she spoke to him only by phone. Phone and other records suggest that Mr. Blair was in New York from 10:09 a.m. to 3:59 p.m. that day, and again the following morning. DENIED REPORTS Mr. Blair described Ms. Gardner speaking as she was "turning swiftly in her chair to listen to an anchor report on a marine unit that had suffered heavy casualties in southern Iraq and about a group of soldiers that had been captured nearby." He also recounted other scenes, which a photographer for The Times did not recall describing to him. FACTUAL ERRORS The sister of Corporal Gardner is named Cara, not Kara. Chief in Sniper Case Considers a Job Change MARCH 22, 2003 WHEREABOUTS Mr. Blair filed this profile of Charles A. Moose, the police chief in Montgomery County, Md., ostensibly from Gaithersburg, Md., on March 21, 2003. Mr. Blair's cellphone records did not indicate that any calls originated from or were received in Maryland that day. DENIED REPORTS The article described Chief Moose as speaking "in an interview here in the apartment he shares with his wife, Sandy." A spokeswoman for Chief Moose said the quotations in the story were accurate but that the interview had been conducted over the phone, not in his apartment. FACTUAL ERRORS Chief Moose's annual salary was listed as $120,000 in the article; it is $160,619. Joseph D. McNamara is a former police chief in San Jose, Calif., not San Diego. And the article misstated the name of a public body. It is the Montgomery County Council's public safety committee, not public safety commission. Bearing the Worst News, Then Helping the Healing MARCH 22, 2003 WHEREABOUTS Mr. Blair purported to write this article about the work of military officers assigned to notify families of soldiers killed on duty from Norfolk, Va. on March 21. A Times official said cellphone and other records indicated that Mr. Blair was in New York that day. FACTUAL ERRORS Four people were quoted by name in this article concerning military officials who deliver the news of soldiers' deaths to their relatives, and two of those names were misspelled. Lt. Asha Fotos's surname was rendered as Potos on five occasions. And Chief Petty Officer Glen Gaynor's first name was given as Glenn. Sniper Suspect Is Disciplined For Cell Graffiti MARCH 8, 2003 WHEREABOUTS Phone records described to reporters by Times officials indicated there were calls made from Mr. Blair's desk in New York to Virginia at 11:46 a.m. on March 7, when the article was ostensibly written, and cellphone and computer records indicated that he remained in New York through the rest of the afternoon. Judge in Sniper Case Bars Cameras From Trial MARCH 4, 2003 WHEREABOUTS Cellphone records, which Mr. Blair had submitted for reimbursement, indicate that calls were made from New York between 2:16 p.m. and 10:50 p.m. on March 3, when the article was supposedly written. At 5:19 p.m., he sent an e-mail message to his editors, saying that he was in the Washington bureau and was about to send a draft of his story. Making Sniper Suspect Talk Puts Detective in Spotlight MARCH 3, 2003 WHEREABOUTS The article was written ostensibly in Fairfax, Va., on March 1. Mr. Blair's cellphone records indicated that no calls originated from outside New York between Feb. 27 and March 26. Phone and other computer records indicate that he was at his desk in New York. DENIED REPORTS The article reported that statements made by Lee Malvo, the younger defendant in the Washington-area sniper shootings, during questioning by Detective Boyle on Nov. 7, 2002, had been videotaped. There is no videotape of the questioning, according to Lt. Amy Lubas, the commander of the public information office at the Fairfax County Police Department; there is only an audiotape. In addition, a quotation from one law enforcement official who had supposedly seen parts of the videotape described him as being in awe of Detective Boyle's performance. "To watch her is to watch a master," the official was quoted as saying. The quotation appears to be manufactured, because law enforcement officials said there was no videotape to be watched. FACTUAL ERRORS Mr. Blair wrote that Detective Boyle, while investigating the death of a young woman in 1995, had noticed blood on the jeans of the woman's brother. According to the article, the detective was then able to build a circumstantial case that led to the man's confession. Lieutenant Lubas said that Detective Boyle did not notice the blood and that the brother did not confess. In addition, Detective Boyle was described as being dressed in her trademark combination of a blazer and black shirt. Lieutenant Lubas said that Detective Boyle did not have a trademark combination and preferred bright colors, not black. Peace and Answers Eluding Victims of the Sniper Attacks FEB. 10, 2003 WHEREABOUTS This Page 1 article carried a Feb. 8 dateline from Washington. Cellphone and other Times records indicate that Mr. Blair was in New York that day. PLAGIARISM Mr. Blair quoted Mrytha Cinada, the daughter of a sniper victim who died, as saying, "That is a big hole in my life that will never be filled by anyone else." The quotation appears to have come from a story in The Washington Post that ran on Oct. 10, 2002, by two reporters, Sylvia Moreno and Darragh Johnson. Ms. Cinada said of Mr. Blair, "I never heard of him and I've never spoken to him." DENIED REPORTS Penny Hannum, also quoted in the story, said she did not speak to Mr. Blair. It is not clear where her quotation came from. Kellie Adams, who was shot in a liquor store robbery in Montgomery, Ala., said she did not compare her background to those of the suspected snipers when she was quoted as saying, "There are similarities in our backgrounds, and I see bits and pieces of myself in even them." FACTUAL ERRORS James Ballenger III said in a telephone interview that he is not a part-time preacher or any kind of preacher. Mr. Ballenger did not volunteer at the local prison; it was a paid position. He had not "relied heavily" on donations from others; he said he accepts them but does not rely on them. The article said that he took "a message of forgiveness to church pulpits and television programs across Louisiana, arguing ferociously that Mr. Muhammad and Mr. Malvo should not be executed," referring to the two suspects arrested in the sniper shootings. Mr. Ballenger said he never addressed this topic from a church pulpit and that he made his points "peacefully." Ms. Adams did not suffer from back pain; she said she suffered from shoulder and neck pain. OTHER ISSUES Mr. Ballenger said that he discussed the fact that his son, James IV, had dropped out of college on the condition that it not be published, and that he was upset to see it in the paper. Gun Tests Said to Bolster Sniper Case JAN. 25, 2003 WHEREABOUTS This article was written ostensibly in Washington on Jan. 24. That day, records indicated, calls were made from Mr. Blair's cellphone in New York beginning at 10:51 a.m. and continuing until 10:10 p.m. In Absence of Parents, a Voice for the Accused JAN. 19, 2003 WHEREABOUTS The article, about one of the lawyers for Lee Malvo, the
younger of the two men accused in the sniper shootings last fall, had a
dateline of Fairfax, Va., Jan 18. Calls originating in New York were made
from Mr. Blair's cellphone that day beginning at 11:42 a.m. and continuing
throughout the day until midnight, records indicated. In the middle of the
afternoon he made a purchase at a
Like Sniper Case, Hearing for Youth Is Out of the Ordinary
JAN. 18, 2003 WHEREABOUTS Cellphone records indicate calls were made on Jan. 17 from New York at 3:43 a.m., 12:32 p.m., and then throughout the afternoon and into the evening until 11:11. The article was supposedly reported and written in Fairfax, Va., on that date. Prints Reportedly Tie Sniper Suspect to Killing JAN. 6, 2003 WHEREABOUTS This article was reported and written ostensibly in Washington on Jan. 5. But cellphone records described to reporters by Times officials indicate calls originating in New York were made beginning at 11:35 a.m. until 4:57 p.m. Mr. Blair, who stopped submitting expenses for reimbursement in the middle of January, ate at a restaurant in Brooklyn that day, according to a receipt he submitted for reimbursement. Execution Opponent Joins Sniper Case JAN. 2, 2003 WHEREABOUTS Mr. Blair ostensibly filed this article on Dec. 31, 2002, from Lexington, Va., where the subject of the profile, Roger D. Groot, is a law professor at Washington and Lee University. Professor Groot said that his quotations in the story were accurate, but that he had spoken to the reporter only by phone. Cellphone records indicate that Mr. Blair was making calls from New York between 9:31 a.m. until nearly midnight. Teenager's Role Tangles Case Against Older Sniper Suspect DEC. 22, 2002 WHEREABOUTS The article about how Mr. Malvo's supposed role in the sniper shooting was affecting the case against the older defendant, John Muhammad, carried a dateline of Centreville, Va., Dec. 19. Calls were made that day from Mr. Blair's desk and cellphone in New York beginning at 12:17 p.m. and ending at 11:59 p.m., records indicated. DENIED REPORTS The article reported on supposed evidence from unnamed law
enforcement officials showing that Mr. Malvo was the likely triggerman in
most of the shootings. The commonwealth attorney in Fairfax County, Va.,
said in a recent interview that at least two of the five pieces of evidence
cited in the article do not exist. The first is a videotape said to have
been recovered from a security camera near the
Acquittal in Shooting of Priest Splits a City DEC. 18, 2002 WHEREABOUTS This article about divisions in Baltimore following the acquittal of a man who, claiming he had been molested by a priest as a child, shot the priest, was ostensibly reported and written in that city on Dec. 17. Records indicate that calls originating in New York on that date were made from Mr. Blair's desk phone, including calls to Baltimore. Calls were made from Mr. Blair's office extension as late as 10:06 p.m. In addition, Mr. Blair did not submit a train ticket receipt or ask to be reimbursed for other travel expenses. OTHER ISSUES Mr. Blair used comments by Lee Gardner, editor of The Baltimore City Paper, that Mr. Gardner said he had stipulated could not be used with his name attached. Donna Jones Stanley, the executive director of the Associated Black Charities of Maryland, said Mr. Blair had used her comments out of context. Mr. Blair wrote that Ms. Stanley said that blacks were "happy that this young man did not have to pay the price for a broken system." Ms. Stanley said she had been speaking only for herself and did not say anything about the views of blacks in general. Man Who Shot Priest in an Abuse Case Wins Acquittal DEC. 17, 2002 WHEREABOUTS Cellphone and office phone records indicate that calls were made from New York throughout the day of Dec. 16, until 9:40 p.m., while the article was supposedly being written and reported in Baltimore. Sniper Case Will Be First Test of Virginia Antiterrorism Law DEC. 17, 2002 WHEREABOUTS Cellphone records indicate that Mr. Blair was in New York from 9:37 a.m. to 7:36 p.m. on Dec. 9, ostensibly when the article was written with a Washington dateline. There are no records of travel to Washington, and he appears to have been in the New York office the next day as phone calls to Virginia were made from his extension. Laura Bush Visits the Youngest Sniper Victim DEC. 13, 2002 WHEREABOUTS Cellphone bills that Mr. Blair submitted for reimbursement indicate that calls were made from New York beginning at 11:07 a.m. on Dec. 12 and continuing past midnight. He was supposedly in Washington that day to report and write this article. Questions Over Reward for Tips in the Sniper Case NOV. 27, 2002 WHEREABOUTS Mr. Blair was supposedly in Rockville, Md., on Nov. 26 to write the article. But receipts submitted for reimbursement include one from a Marshalls store in Brooklyn at 5:12 p.m. that day. On his expense form, he wrote that the purchase was for blankets for his hotel-room bed in Washington. Attendance Requirement Leaves Colleges Sweating NOV. 23, 2002 DENIED REPORTS An article about efforts by college football teams to increase attendance to comply with a new requirement of the National Collegiate Athletic Association quoted Pete Mahoney, the associate athletic director at Kent State. In a telephone interview, Mr. Mahoney denied making the quoted statement or speaking with Mr. Blair. FACTUAL ERRORS The article said that the new N.C.A.A. rule setting minimum home-game attendance requirements "went into effect this season." In fact, the rule will go into effect in 2004. OTHER ISSUES The article used a quotation from The San Jose Mercury News of Sept. 26, 2002, without attribution. Robert Caret, the president of San Jose State University, told that newspaper: "You can like it or not like it, but the fact of the matter is, of the institutions we want in our peer group, Division I football is one of our defining characteristics." Mr. Blair wrote only that Mr. Caret had made the comment earlier in the year. In addition, The Daily Kent Stater, a student newspaper, published an article in December in which school officials took issue with Mr. Blair's reporting. The writer of the article, who said that he could not reach Mr. Blair because his voice-mail in box was full, then left detailed messages for The Times's sports department. No one at the paper responded to the messages. Statements by Teenager May Muddy Sniper Case NOV. 11, 2002 WHEREABOUTS Expense records, as described by Times officials, suggest that Mr. Blair traveled to New York from Washington on the weekend of Nov. 9 and did not not return to Washington until Nov. 11, the day after this article was filed with a Washington dateline. A receipt submitted with his expenses indicated that he bought $11.46 worth of cigarettes and magazines at Penn Station in New York on the morning of Nov. 11. DENIED REPORTS In this article, Mr. Blair quoted Toby Vick, a former state and federal prosecutor in Virginia, about the dangers that the inclusion of Mr. Malvo's statements could have on Mr. Muhammad's trial. "It helps him with one of the statutes, the capital murder charge, but it does not help him on the terrorism charge," Mr. Vick said. "If you bring it in to prove he was not the shooter, prosecutors could bring it in to prove the terrorism charge, where you don't have to show the defendant fired the shot." Mr. Vick has said that while he has spoken to Mr. Blair about the sniper case for previous articles, he is "fairly confident" that he did not make this statement. Officials Link Most Killings to Teenager NOV. 10, 2002 WHEREABOUTS Mr. Blair used The Times's travel agent to book a train ticket from Washington to New York on the evening of Nov. 8. Cellphone records indicate that he was in New York later that same night as well as the next day, at least between 11 a.m. and 4:46 p.m. While it is possible that Mr. Blair could have returned to Washington later that day, hotel records at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington show no additional charges to the room tariff. Food and phone charges were incurred between Nov. 4 and Nov. 8. Sniper Suspects Linked to Yet Another Shooting NOV. 2, 2002 FACTUAL ERRORS In an article about how investigators linked the Washington-area snipers to earlier shootings in other states, Mr. Blair described the recovery of a handgun used in a shooting in Montgomery, Ala. Mr. Blair wrote that "John Wilson, the chief of the Montgomery police, said a .22-caliber Magnum handgun that was stolen in Oklahoma was found on Wednesday in an area where an officer said he had chased Mr. Muhammad," one of the sniper suspects. In a telephone interview, Mr. Wilson said that the handgun was found in an area where a civilian said he had chased Mr. Malvo after a fatal shooting in the area on Sept. 21. U.S. Sniper Case Seen as a Barrier to a Confession OCT. 30, 2002 FACTUAL ERRORS In this article, Mr. Blair wrote about the way a dispute between local and federal prosecutors affected the interrogation of John Muhammad, a suspect in the sniper case. Mr. Blair wrote that two assistant United States attorneys from Maryland, James M. Trusty and A. David Copperthite, participated in discussions about whether the suspects should be charged by local or federal authorities. Neither official participated in the discussions, according to Thomas M. DiBiagio, the United States attorney for Maryland, whose account was confirmed by other law enforcement officials who participated in the meeting. The article also suggested — inaccurately, Mr. DiBiagio said — that Mr. Trusty and Mr. Copperthite were among the officials who had gathered to watch the interrogation of Mr. Muhammad. OTHER ISSUES In the first sentence of the article, Mr. Blair wrote that Mr. Muhammad had been talking to investigators for more than an hour, "explaining the roots of his anger," when a federal prosecutor interrupted the interrogation and told investigators to deliver Mr. Muhammad to Baltimore. In the third paragraph of the article, he also quoted an anonymous law enforcement official as saying that "it looked like Muhammed was ready to share everything." The article drew a conclusion unwarranted by the reporting. According to local and federal law enforcement officials who monitored the interrogation, the conversations were aimed at building a rapport with Mr. Muhammad and he was not on the verge of a confession. The officials said that the interrogation had not yet broached any of the shootings, and that Mr. Muhammad was not discussing the "roots of his anger." Editors who worked on the article said that the story should have also acknowledged more promptly information from other Times reporters that contradicted Mr. Blair's account of the interrogation. Cultural Groups Need Help OCT. 20, 2001 FABRICATIONS A brief article concerning the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York cultural institutions said that the American Craft Museum was "already in serious financial trouble before Sept. 11." The assertion was not attributed. A correction published on Oct. 30, 2001, stated that "while lower-level staff members spoke of financial troubles that existed before Sept. 11, the director, Holly Hotchner, says the museum's finances are strong." In defending his original reporting to his editors, Mr. Blair relied primarily on what he said were conversations with the museum's chief financial officer, who was said to have acted as a confidential source. In a recent interview, the museum's chief financial officer then and now, Robert J. Salemo, said he never spoke with Mr. Blair. There is no evidence that Mr. Blair spoke with "lower-level staff members." Mr. Salemo said that the museum broke even that year. Fighting Words: Whose Icon Is It? SEPT. 29, 2001 FACTUAL ERRORS In an article about the effort by some family members of passengers on one of the aircraft hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, to trademark the phrase "let's roll," Mr. Blair quoted John F. Delaney, a lawyer, on what a trademark is. Mr. Blair quoted Mr. Delaney accurately but failed to identify him or his law firm correctly. Mr. Delaney's first name is John, not Jonathan, and he is a lawyer in the New York office of Morrison & Foerster, not Morrison & Forester. In Side Effect of Economic Prosperity, White-Collar Crime Flourishes MARCH 13, 2000 FACTUAL ERRORS An article about white-collar crime discussed the experiences of Gary Ahlert, who was said to have lost $400,000 on a plan to market a material to cover artificial limbs. That loss, the article added, made him eager to listen to a sales pitch concerning an investment in a mine in Arizona. In a recent telephone interview, Mr. Ahlert said he had not lost money on a marketing plan, though he did fail to collect a licensing fee of some $200,000 in connection with it. He added that the investment involved ore in a warehouse and not in a mine. Readers with information about other articles by Jayson Blair that may be false wholly or in part are asked to e-mail The Times: retrace@nytimes.com. |
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New York Times Details Deceit by Staff Reporter By
MATTHEW ROSE Detailing one of the most extensive instances of journalistic fraud in recent memory, the New York Times published a long article Sunday describing "widespread fabrication and plagiarism" in the reporting of a former staff reporter, Jayson Blair. In the page-one article of more than 7,200 words, which filled two inside pages and was reported by five reporters and two researchers, the paper said it had uncovered problems in at least 36 of 73 articles written since October, the time at which Mr. Blair, 27 years old, started writing national news stories. They included fabricating comments, making up scenes and plagiarizing material reported by other news outlets. The stories often concerned matters of national importance, such as the Washington-area sniper shootings and the families of U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq. In some cases, the paper said, it appears Mr. Blair was in New York while writing stories with datelines from elsewhere.
"It's a huge black eye," the paper quoted Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., its publisher and chairman of its parent New York Times Co., as saying. Mr. Blair resigned from the paper earlier this month after questions were raised about similarities between a piece he wrote about a missing Army mechanic and an earlier story on the same topic in the San Antonio Express-News, a Hearst Corp. newspaper. The Times said Mr. Blair's earlier work, done before his assignment to national stories, would be "spot-checked." In an editor's note that also appeared Sunday, the paper pledged another internal inquiry to "examine the newsroom's processes for training, assignment and accountability." Mr. Blair didn't respond to messages left on his cellphone. Some industry experts say Mr. Blair's acts hint at broader problems at the paper. "It wasn't only Jayson Blair's betrayal, which was intentional, it was the betrayal of the New York Times of the highest of standards that should exist for a paper of its reputation and resources," says Bob Steele, director of the ethics program at the Poynter Institute, a journalism-research center in St. Petersburg, Fla. In a telephone interview, Mr. Sulzberger said there is little that anyone could have done to prevent Mr. Blair, who had worked at the Times nearly four years, from putting false information into the paper. "Do we have a system designed to uncover venality? No, we don't, and you know something, I guess I am not unhappy with that," Mr. Sulzberger said. "I don't want us to become a police state where you suspect every employee of ripping off the company." The Times didn't appear to heed multiple clear warnings about Mr. Blair's past inaccuracies from his supervisors, something the newspaper attributed to a failure of communication among editors. Jonathan Landman, the paper's metropolitan editor and at one time Mr. Blair's boss, was among a number of managers who knew about problems with Mr. Blair's work. Mr. Landman didn't support Mr. Blair's promotion to full reporter in January 2001, and in April 2002 he e-mailed newsroom administrators saying, "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now." The next day, Mr. Blair received a formal reprimand and he took a brief leave, according to the Times article. In a telephone interview, Mr. Landman said he didn't know why his warnings weren't heeded. He said the paper's management has become more hierarchical since the appointment of Executive Editor Howell Raines in 2001 but warned against "leaping to grand conclusions" about why Mr. Blair wasn't caught earlier. Speaking in general terms, he said: "There are all kinds of systems and none are 100% effective -- people get away with murder." When Mr. Blair returned from his leave, the paper said, his performance improved. Eventually, Mr. Blair was recruited to help with sniper coverage, in part because he was familiar with Washington's suburbs. The Times's two top editors knew of problems with Mr. Blair's prior work but didn't tell National Editor Jim Roberts because Mr. Blair had improved. Editors at the paper didn't ask Mr. Blair to reveal his sources on two significant sniper-related stories, which appeared at the time to be big scoops but also drew denials from law-enforcement officials. Mr. Roberts and Nick Fox, another of Mr. Blair's editors on the sniper story, "said in interviews last week that the [law enforcement officials'] statements would have raised far more serious concerns in their minds had they been aware of Mr. Blair's history of inaccuracy," the Times said. Mr. Roberts said in the Times account that Mr. Landman told him of Mr. Blair's problems with accuracy a while after those stories ran, but that he didn't tell his own deputies. During Mr. Blair's career at the Times, the paper wrote 50 corrections in connection with his stories, a Times spokeswoman said. Of those, six corrections were caused by others at the paper, such as copy editors, and an additional 10 related to stories written with other reporters, the spokeswoman said. The Times account avoided pinning blame on anyone but Mr. Blair, paraphrasing Mr. Sulzberger as saying, "there will be no newsroom search for scapegoats." Mr. Sulzberger said, "the person who did this is Jayson Blair." "Let's not begin to demonize our executives -- either the desk editors or the executive editor or, dare I say, the publisher." Some experts commended the Times's extensive reporting on Mr. Blair but said it didn't fully answer the question of whether other editors or the institution might also be responsible. "They have not completely answered why this went on so long and whether the paper is more structurally at fault for not stopping him sooner," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a watchdog group based in Washington. Alex Jones, a former Times media reporter and co-author of a book about the Sulzberger family, notes that one phone call from one of Mr. Blair's supposed interviewees could have exposed the fraud. But "the Times doesn't make it easy," Mr. Jones said, noting the paper doesn't have a formal representative to take public complaints. Mr. Sulzberger, in his interview, said the paper would examine what went wrong but strongly denied that Mr. Blair's transgressions were aided by the paper's internal processes or the management style of its top editors. He also said the paper had plenty of mechanisms allowing readers to make complaints but added that it could do more to make the paper less forbidding to outsiders. "This is not a Howell problem, this is not an Arthur Sulzberger problem -- this was a bad man doing bad things," Mr. Sulzberger said. Mr. Raines couldn't be reached for comment. Appearing on the "Newshour with Jim Lehrer" last week, he said Mr. Blair's correction rate was "not an automatic sign of incompetence." He said Mr. Blair's subterfuge, which included falsifying expense reports, would have been hard to catch anywhere. "This system is not set up to catch someone who sets out to lie and to use every means at his or her disposal to put false information into the paper." Mr. Blair's fraud ranks with some of the more notorious scandals in modern journalism. In 1981, Washington Post Co.'s Washington Post concluded that a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece by reporter Janet Cooke about an eight-year-old heroin addict was a fabrication. Three years later, The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Co., disclosed that R. Foster Winans, who wrote the paper's "Heard on the Street" column, had been fired for taking bribes from a stockbroker in return for advance information on the column's contents. In 1998, the New Republic fired writer Stephen Glass for a series of fabrications. This is the second time in three years the Times has conceded lapses in professional standards. In September 2000, it published a 1,600-word editor's note criticizing articles about former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee. The paper broadly defended its coverage but said it should have given "Dr. Lee the full benefit of the doubt." Mr. Blair, who is African-American, first worked at the Times in 1998 in an internship program designed to improve racial diversity at the paper. Before that, Mr. Blair worked on his high-school newspaper and studied at the University of Maryland but didn't graduate, the Times said. He was also an intern at another Times-owned paper, the Boston Globe, in 1997. After returning to the Times in June 1999, he advanced quickly to became a full reporter in January 2001. Gerald M. Boyd, the Times managing editor, told reporters that Mr. Blair's advance was unrelated to his race. "He was a young, promising reporter who had done a job that warranted promotion," the paper quoted Mr. Boyd as saying. The questionable stories cited by the Times occurred over more than half a year but the paper said it also found other possible problems in the more than 600 pieces he wrote in total. The recent subjects ranged from the sniper shootings to the impact of the Iraq war to the acquittal of a man in Baltimore who shot a priest. A Dec. 22, 2002, piece titled "Teenager's Role Tangles Case Against Older Sniper Suspect" carried a dateline of Centreville, Va. But the Times cited records showing calls made from Mr. Blair's desk and cellphone in New York during most of that day, suggesting he hadn't gone to Centreville. Mr. Blair's story said the younger of the two sniper suspects, Lee Malvo, was the likely triggerman, citing unnamed law-enforcement officials. The Times Sunday cited evidence showing that at least two of the five pieces of evidence cited in the story didn't exist. Mr. Blair also covered the impact of the Iraq war in the U.S. Although one story quoted details from an April 6 church service in Cleveland, the Times said "it does not appear" Mr. Blair was there. Chunks of the piece seem to have first appeared in the Washington Post. The Times also said Mr. Blair lifted quotes from the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the New York Daily News. Mr. Blair told the Associated Press just after his resignation that he was dealing with "recurring personal issues" but didn't elaborate. The Times account didn't provide any other details. The Times said Mr. Blair wouldn't help with the investigation and said it tried to contact Mr. Blair Friday via his cellphone, family and union representative, but he didn't return calls. Write to Matthew Rose at matthew.rose@wsj.com1
Updated May 12, 2003 11:16 a.m.
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2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Printing, distribution, and use of this material is governed by your Subscription agreement and Copyright laws. For information about subscribing go to http://www.wsj.com |
N.Y.
Times Uncovers Dozens Of Faked Stories by Reporter
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By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 11, 2003; Page A01
The New York Times, in an extraordinary admission of journalistic fraud in at least 36 articles, called the repeated deceptions of reporter Jayson Blair "a low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper."
Describing Blair as "a troubled young man veering toward professional self-destruction," the paper today recounted how the reporter faked stories from Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio and Texas without ever leaving New York, using a cell phone and laptop computer to disguise his whereabouts and deceive his bosses.
It is a portrait of a wide-ranging management failure as well, as the Times's top editors failed to heed one red flag after another while promoting Blair to national reporter. In April 2002, metropolitan editor Jonathan Landman sent newsroom administrators a two-sentence e-mail message that read: "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now."
Instead, Blair was handed such sensitive assignments as the Washington sniper case and interviewing the parents of soldiers wounded or killed in Iraq -- assignments in which, as The Washington Post reported last week, he repeatedly invented or plagiarized the comments of those involved.
Five Times reporters, two researchers and three editors conducted more than 150 interviews in producing a sweeping self-examination filling several pages that attempted to set the record straight and apologize to readers.
"By November," the Times reported, "he was fabricating quotations and scenes, undetected. 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."
As Times Publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. bluntly told his paper: "It's a huge black eye."
Many news organizations have suffered major embarrassments over the last two decades. The Post returned a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 over reporter Janet Cooke's invention of an 8-year-old heroin addict. The Wall Street Journal's R. Foster Winans was convicted of selling advance information from his column. NBC staged a fiery truck crash on "Dateline." The New Republic published 27 fabricated articles by Stephen Glass, and the Boston Globe several bogus columns by Patricia Smith.
But in scope, breadth, pathos and sheer human inventiveness for covering his fictional tracks, Jayson Blair may have no equal, especially considering that his transgressions occurred at one of the nation's most prestigious and carefully edited newspapers.
Blair said he lost a cousin in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon; the victim's family told the Times it was not related to Blair.
Blair falsified expense accounts to make it appear he was traveling the country when he was at home.
Blair last month described two wounded Marines lying side by side at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, though he was never there. While he did interview one of the men, Lance Cpl. James Klingel, by telephone, "most of that stuff I didn't say," Klingel told the Times.
Blair deceived his own freelance photographer when he was supposed to be in Cleveland interviewing the Rev. Tandy Sloan, whose son died in Iraq and who later said he never spoke to Blair. The photographer reached Blair three times by cell phone, only to be told they could not meet. The resulting article lifted a half-dozen passages from other news accounts, including four from The Post.
The Times's own photo editors suspect that Blair used their digital pictures to fake a story from Hunt Valley, Md., where he described Martha and Michael Gardner anxiously awaiting news of their son, a Marine in Iraq.
"I am giving them a breather for about 30 minutes," Blair e-mailed National Editor Jim Roberts. "It's amazing timing. Lots of wrenching ups and downs with all the reports of casualties."
Blair was still in New York when he wrote that note.
How did a 27-year-old journalist from Centreville High School in Northern Virginia -- he had previously been a freelance reporter for The Post and an intern for the Times and the Boston Globe -- work himself into a position where he could practice such high-level fraud? And why was no one at the New York Times able to stop him?
In 1999, when Blair joined the Times as an intermediate reporter who would remain on probation until proving himself, the paper said everyone assumed he had graduated from the University of Maryland -- he had not -- and one editor soon told him he needed a more balanced lifestyle than drinking scotch and smoking cigarettes.
While Blair charmed many colleagues in the Manhattan newsroom, he was "running up company expenses from a bar around the corner, and taking company cars for extended periods, racking up parking tickets," the paper said in its report, which was posted online yesterday. He was also making plenty of mistakes -- there would be 50 corrections in 3 1/2 years -- and being lectured about his inaccuracies.
Landman opposed Blair's elevation to staff reporter in 2001, but a committee that included Gerald Boyd, now the managing editor, recommended the move, and Joseph Lelyveld, then the executive editor, approved it. Landman said top management had made clear that furthering the career of a reporter like Blair, who is African American, was part of the newspaper's commitment to diversity.
"To say now that his promotion was about diversity in my view doesn't begin to capture what was going on," Boyd, the paper's top-ranking black editor, is quoted as saying, calling Blair "a young, promising reporter."
Blair's behavior became more erratic after the Sept. 11 attacks, when he claimed to have lost the relative and was unavailable for long stretches. Blair's mounting corrections caught the attention of the new executive editor, Howell Raines.
By January 2002, Landman told Blair in an evaluation that his correction rate was "extraordinarily high by the standards of the paper." He warned Boyd and another top editor of "big trouble" in a note that accompanied the evaluation. Blair soon spent two weeks in an employee counseling program, and later took a brief leave.
Blair was shuffled to the sports department -- "If you take Jayson, be careful," Landman recalled warning the sports editor -- but at Boyd's urging, he was soon drafted to cover the Washington sniper case.
Within six days, Blair had a front-page scoop about the arrest of the older sniper suspect, John Muhammad. Blair reported, based on unnamed law enforcement sources, that U.S. attorney Thomas DiBiagio in Maryland had forced a premature end to the interrogation of Muhammad just as he was ready to confess.
In fact, said the Times, two senior law enforcement officials now agree that Muhammad was trying to arrange for a shower and a meal, not "explaining the roots of his anger," as Blair wrote. DiBiagio and a top FBI official protested, as did several veteran Times reporters in Washington.
Raines, however, sent Blair a note praising his "great shoe-leather reporting." He told the newspaper he did not ask Blair to disclose his sources, as is sometimes done in sensitive cases, because he had no idea that he was dealing with "a pathological pattern of misrepresentation, fabricating and deceiving." Nor did Raines tell national editor Roberts of Blair's earlier problems.
In December, Blair wrote a piece about the teenage sniper suspect, Lee Boyd Malvo, that prompted Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Horan to call a news conference and declare the story "dead wrong." But the Times felt unable to publish a correction because Horan would not specify the errors.
In January, metro chief Landman finally told Roberts that Blair was error-prone and needed to be watched, but in another example of the communications problems that seemed to prevent action, Roberts said the warning "got socked in the back of my head" and he did not tell his deputies.
By now, Blair's fiction-writing extended to his expense accounts. He said he bought blankets at a Marshalls department store in Washington, but the receipt showed the purchase was made in Brooklyn. He said he dined with a law enforcement official at a Tutta Pasta restaurant in Washington, but the Tutta Pasta was in Brooklyn. No one caught the discrepancies.
Raines and his senior editors, meanwhile, were so impressed with Blair's seemingly far-flung reporting that they discussed giving him a permanent spot on the coveted national staff. "Here was a guy who had been working hard and getting into the paper on significant stories," Raines told the Times. But Roberts balked, saying he told Boyd that Blair "works the way he lives -- sloppily."
Between late October and late April, Blair claimed to have filed stories from 20 cities in six states -- yet did not submit any hotel, plane or rental car receipts. Blair did not have a company credit card and his own cards were maxed out, forcing him to rely on Roberts's credit card.
It was near the end of this period that Blair, as previously reported, faked an interview in West Virginia with George Lynch, the father of the rescued POW Jessica Lynch. The family joked about the nonexistent tobacco fields and cattle Blair described in an article as being near the house. But no one complained because "we just figured it was going to be a one-time thing," Jessica's sister Brandi told the Times.
Even as Blair's deceptions finally caught up with him, he refused to confess.
When the San Antonio Express-News complained that Blair had plagiarized its account of a Texas woman whose son was later found dead in Iraq, Roberts confronted Blair and asked him to describe the woman's house. He did, right down to the red Jeep in the driveway and the roses in the yard -- details again drawn from the paper's photo archives.
At one point, Roberts demanded: "Look me in the eye and tell me you did what you say you did." Blair did just that.
Media analysts said the damage -- 36 fabrications in Blair's last 73 stories -- could be lasting. Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism called the Times investigation "pretty remarkable," but added: "I'm not sure they've come to grips particularly well with why did this happen and should the paper have caught it sooner and why didn't they."
Robert Lichter of the Center for Media and Public Affairs said that "any time you find something so pervasive, you have to wonder what else slips past the checks and balances. The Times was a standard that journalists looked up to. Now it's something they're going to have to live down."
Steven Roberts, a media professor at George Washington University and a former Times reporter, said that "there are no official methods of accountability in journalism -- no review boards, no licensing procedures. The first rule of ethical behavior is when you make a mistake, find out everything you possibly can and come clean as quickly as possible."
Blair has given no interviews since resigning and did not speak to the Times, and spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said the editors would have no further comment yesterday. Raines is quoted as saying he will appoint a task force to identify lessons for the newspaper.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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Boston Globe Probing Articles By Disgraced Reporter Blair
BOSTON (AP)--The Boston Globe is investigating possible fabrications in several stories written for the paper by Jayson Blair, the former New York Times reporter who resigned after he was accused of falsifying information. Blair worked as an intern and freelancer for the Globe, which is owned by the New York Times Co. (NYT), before going to the Times, and a review of 85 stories written for the Globe suggest Blair's "pattern of falsification" may date back to his stints there, the newspaper said in a front-page story Monday. "Obviously, the integrity of what we put in the newspaper is important to us. If there's a challenge to the integrity of what we put in the newspaper, we want to check it out," Boston Globe Editor Martin Baron told The Associated Press on Monday. Baron said a team of four reporters is reviewing Blair's work for the newspaper and, if there were errors made, "we want to be honest with readers and tell them that." Baron also said the newspaper was "re-examining our internal procedures to see if there's anything we need to do to tighten up." Blair, 27, resigned from the Times on May 1 after questions surfaced about his reporting. On Sunday, the Times published details about an investigation into Blair's work, saying he had "committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud" that included stealing material from other newspapers, lying about his whereabouts and quoting people he had never interviewed. Blair worked for the Globe as a summer intern in the Washington bureau in 1996, then returned as an intern for the newspaper's Metro section in the summer of 1997. He freelanced for the paper from late 1998 to early 1999, when he moved on to the Times. In an April 1999 Globe story scrutinized by the newspaper, Blair wrote about challenges facing the mayor of Washington, using quotes from the mayor that were essentially identical to remarks published earlier in the Washington Post Co.'s (WPO) namesake paper. A spokeswoman for the mayor told the Globe there was no record the mayor had ever spoken to Blair, though she did say "people talk to the mayor all the time, they grab him in the hallway." The former head of the University of the District of Columbia also denied a quote attributed to him in the same story concerning a proposal to relocate the university from a mostly white, upscale part of the city to a mostly minority and lower-income section. In the article, Julius F. Nimmons Jr., now a history professor at the school, was quoted as saying the relocation would be a betrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders who endured "beatings, lynchings, spittings, humiliations, cursing, so that we would have the right to share a space in a neighborhood." "He didn't call me and I would make no statements like that," Nimmons told the Globe. The Globe said it began its investigation Friday after being notified by the Post of questions about the article on the Washington mayor. The Post ran a story Saturday saying that Blair had "faked an interview" with the mayor. The Globe also raised questions about quotes in three other stories. A message left at a New York City telephone listing for Blair wasn't immediately returned. Neither was a message left at his cellular telephone number. After his resignation earlier this month, Blair apologized in a letter for his "lapse of journalistic integrity." He said he was "struggling with recurring personal issues, which have caused me great pain," that he was seeking counseling, and that he regretted what he did. Baron said the Globe team would meet again Monday to discuss what needed to be done to further investigate Blair's work.
Updated May 12, 2003 1:36 p.m.
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2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Printing, distribution, and use of this material is governed by your Subscription agreement and Copyright laws. For information about subscribing go to http://www.wsj.com |
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NY Times admits reporter's fabrications
 
NY Times admits reporter's fabrications
By Ellen Wulfhorst |
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NewsMax.com
Monday May 12, 2003 3:30 p.m. EDT
NY Times ‘Black Eye’ Nothing New
Carl Bernstein told Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America" that, while the scandal involving former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair was a black mark on the Times' reputation, the paper once again proved itself to be a great newspaper by publicly confessing its part in allowing Blair to get away with writing false stories.
If this was the first time the paper got what it’s publisher called a "huge Black Eye," that might be a legitimate observation, but, as history shows, both of the New York Times' proverbial eyes have been black for a long, long time; enough to disqualify it from ever being seen as great.
The failure of the Times to get rid of a reporter who it knew was utterly unreliable has been duly noted by most of the journalists covering the story.
The Times overlooked his endless string of inaccuracies, suspicious activities and even promoted him after Jonathan Landman, the metropolitan editor, warned newsroom administrators in April 2002, that: "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now."
What they have not noted is the long history of journalistic deceit tolerated or even encouraged by the Times.
It was later revealed the Soviets had bribed Duranty after learning of his "sexual proclivities." That shocking fact became public years later after he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting.
As author Mona Charen recently noted the Times has not had the common decency to give back the prize or even to offer an apology to the public.
Duranty’s lies covered up the true nature of the murderous Soviet government, giving it a reputation as a benign and reformist regime at a time when it was beginning to butcher the Russian people by the millions.
Once the Americans left, wrote Charen, "we had one of the worst bloodbaths in the history of the world." One third of Cambodia’s people were eliminated.
As National Review once joked. Castro got his job through the New York Times, spoofing a Times ad campaign slogan boosting its Help Wanted columns.
Wrote Newsweek "Kissinger had expressed realpolitik reservations but stopped far short of arguing against an attack."
After an ensuing flap, the paper assigned a media reporter a story on how the American press was increasingly seen as driving the debate on Iraq.
"According to a number of sources at the Times,’ Newsweek revealed, "the reporter, David Carr, went back to his editors and told them the media, per se, weren’t driving anything: the only publication injecting itself into the policy debate was the Times itself. The story never ran. An editor’s note, explaining the Times’ mistakes, was printed instead.
The Washington Times chimed in: "Last Friday, the New York Times ran a willfully misleading front-page story which mischaracterized Henry Kissinger's critical endorsement of President Bush's Iraq strategy.
"Combined with the intellectual slovenliness and pack instincts of much of the Washington press corps, the Times article could undermine support for the President's Iraq war aims - which, of course, was the purpose of the article."
"Youssouf Male is a real person, and I interviewed him, and most of the scenes in that article are based on his experience. But many are based on the experiences of others very much like him," Finkel told AP.
"In order to tell a very complex story in a way that is compelling to read, I made the wrong decision to put together several accounts that were told to me by these young workers, and I combined them into one representative voice."
In an editor's note, the Times said notes from Finkel's three weeks of reporting "reveal that contrary to the description of Youssouf Male's year of work at the plantation, he spent less than a month there before running away. ... Many facts were extrapolated from what he learned was typical of boys on such journeys, and did not apply specifically to any single individual."
Editors began to investigate after Finkel said that a photo he had taken of a boy, published without a caption, was not a picture of Male.
Carl Bernstein is dead wrong. The New York Times is not a great newspaper. It cannot even manage its editorial staff, much less cover the news fairly and without extreme liberal prejudice.
It is a propaganda sheet for ultra-left wing causes and the liberal wing of the Democrat Party. It should be treated as such.
In the Blair case, they got what they deserved.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Another Reporter Accuses Jennings of Liberal Bias
Marc Morano, CNSNews.com
Monday May 12, 2003
Another former ABC News correspondent has stepped forward to accuse long-time World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings of inserting a liberal editorial bias in the news copy of reporters in the field.
The charges leveled by Bob Zelnick, who spent 21 years at ABC News, follow revelations from former network correspondent Peter Collins, that Jennings manipulated news scripts during the 1980s in order to praise the Marxist-backed Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
Zelnick, now the chairman of the journalism department at Boston University, left ABC News in 1998 after executives refused to renew his contract because they feared Zelnick's work on a political biography critical of then-Vice President Al Gore might compromise his objectivity.
Zelnick could not corroborate Collins' assertions, the focus of an earlier CNSNews.com article, but did recount his own experiences with Jennings' editorial influence at ABC News.
"It was very common for correspondents, both domestic and foreign to run into a World News Tonight [staff] that was influenced by Peter [Jennings] who had a different interpretation of a story," Zelnick told CNSNews.com.
"The correspondent who knows that he is going to be doing a piece on World News Tonight girds himself for battle when the phone rings and the editors or sometimes Peter [Jennings] gets on the phone," Zelnick explained.
And there was usually no doubt about which ideological direction Jennings would attempt to lead correspondents.
"In terms of the direction that Peter Collins recalls Peter Jennings pushing in - and that was to the left of where the correspondent is - that's consistent with my experiences and I think most [ABC News correspondents'] experience," Zelnick explained.
Zelnick referred to what he called the "Peter [Jennings] Factor."
"I have never condemned Peter Jennings for trying to bring others around to his point of view ... but there was the Peter Factor," Zelnick said.
World News Tonight, unlike some organizations, has a tradition of changing the scripts of correspondents, often for stylistic reasons, often for editorial reasons," Zelnick added.
'Comical'
In an earlier, exclusive interview with CNSNews.com , Collins alleged that Jennings personally dictated changes in a Collins television script in order to praise the Sandinista government for its "new, unselfish society," for successfully reducing illiteracy and "launch[ing] the biggest land reform in Central America."
Collins covered Central America for ABC's World News Tonight and Nightline from 1982 until 1991. Collins is now retired from journalism.
ABC News publicist Cathie Levine refused to comment on Collins' disclosures when contacted by CNSNews.com April 30. However, ABC News did issue a statement to MSNBC anchor Bill Press prior to the airing of his program, Buchanan & Press.
Click here for the Collins/Press exchange.
ABC stated: "When people think of trustworthy journalists named Peter, I don't think the name Collins comes to mind."
Collins dismissed the ABC News statement as "comical ... It's lame and if that is the best [ABC] can do, it's pretty sad," Collins told CNSNews.com.
Despite ABC's slap at Collins' credibility, Zelnick defended his former colleague.
"If (Collins' revelations) are not true, then Peter Collins is lying and I have never seen anything in his work to suggest that he is a liar," Zelnick said.
"I saw [Collins'] work from Latin America and I thought it was pretty good," he added.
However, in Zelnick's experience, the editorial pressure applied by Jennings and his producers could be resisted.
"I found when you defended your point of view and drew the line, and said 'I can't go beyond that,' they respected that and that is when Peter [Jennings] or whoever else was in the [anchor] chair would say 'okay,'" Zelnick said.
"In my personal experience, no correspondent was ever forced to report something that ran contrary to his judgment of what was accurate," he added.
Zelnick believes Collins could even have resisted the changes personally dictated by Jennings to his story about the 10th anniversary of the Sandinista takeover of Nicaragua.
"It's possible not being in the Washington mix, not having quite as important a beat as someone covering the State Department or White House or Capitol Hill that [Collins] might have yielded on occasions when a Brit Hume or a Sam Donaldson or Jack McWethy or Bob Zelnick would not have yielded," Zelnick said.
'Politically Motivated'
Zelnick ended his career at ABC News in 1998, "because of a dispute over the Gore book," he said.
"[ABC] first gave me permission to write it and then seven or eight months later when my contract was up, and after I had paid a full time researcher for three-and-a-half months and did a lot of work myself, they said if you want to stay with ABC you have to drop the book, cancel all work on the project and return the advance," Zelnick explained.
In a Feb. 24, 1998 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Zelnick claimed ABC News President David Westin had told him, "We cannot have a Washington correspondent writing a book about one of our national leaders whom that correspondent will undoubtedly have to cover."
Zelnick refused to cancel the book deal and as a result, ABC News did not renew his contract. The book, Gore: A Political Life , was published in 1999.
"I think [my dismissal from ABC] was at least in part politically motivated and I said so at the time," Zelnick told CNSNews.com .
In his Wall Street Journal op-ed, Zelnick asked the rhetorical question: "Would I have faced the same problem if I were an avowedly liberal journalist undertaking a book that made conservatives mildly uncomfortable rather than a moderately conservative one writing about a liberal icon? Had the proposed title been Gingrich: A Critical Look at the Man and His Climb to Power , would I have been forced to choose between my book and my career? I rather doubt it."
When asked Friday whether he still believes ABC was wrong to let him go, Zelnick responded with another question.
"Has Stephanopoulos been barred from reporting?" Zelnick asked, referring to George Stephanopoulos, the former aide to President Bill Clinton and current anchor of ABC's This Week.
Referring to his own experience with the network, Zelnick said, "It's the only time I have ever heard of a reporter being prevented from writing a book. Usually they are encouraged to write books."
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Insists Jennings Is Biased
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