Jayson Blair's Short Biography: The New York Times
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Jayson Blair was an African American journalist and a reporter for the New York Times (Times) in 1998. He was hired as an intern and then later his internship was extended for him to complete school, although he never did. Shortly after, he offered to take on a position as an intermediate reporter, and before long he was brought on as a full time member. Blair was a twenty-seven year old climbing to the top of his industry, becoming the lead reporter in the Beltway Sniper shootings and trial, one of the most popular stories at that time. Impressing many around him, he drew much attention only to soon make national headlines in the way that would be frowned upon. The New York Times launched an investigation towards his work and found that over…show more content… Right Now” (Barry et al B1-8). Yet his performance improved, and he seemed to turn his life around. Before long he was being investigated for prior falsified stories. By the end of April, questions were raised about him plagiarizing. Blair started receiving inquiries from various editors and reporters expressing their mistakes in giving him praise for his reporting skills, maturity, and behavior during his five-year journey from green intern to a national reporter on the news. His articles and work went viral as many searched and longed for answers. In result, Blair resigned from The New York Times, after nearly four years of reporting. Investigation continued, pieces of The New York Times came crashing down just as Jayson’s career did. “Times was blamed for letting Blair commit ethical misstep after ethical misstep under their nose” (Bailey 1). The idea of harm being done to such a prestigious newspaper seemed impossible by a young reporter. Times missed warning signs throughout Blair’s work, and in fact investigation found that he was plagiarizing back in college as well. This could’ve been prevented or greatly reduced if they had been more proactive in dealing with these issues. Blair’s opportunity for doing reporting and journalism was done and he knew it. Along with that he lost the respect of his friends and colleagues. He never wanted to be remembered in a negative view as the former Times writer. Blair said, “I wanted to travel the globe, collecting awards, and helping people through journalism” (1). Also, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and went to treatment for that as well. It wasn’t the end of life, but his career that he was passionate about, and he took on some time to be treated for psychotherapy and under the care of a psychiatrist. He wanted to accomplish great things in reporting,