Our View

Jayson Blair, the New York Times reporter who left the paper

after being accused of lying, plagiarism and making up sources and

stories, signed a book deal with New Millennium Press earning the

disgraced reported a mid-six-figure advance, according to a USA

Today article.

“There are hard-working journalists out there who are never

going to see that payday,” said New York Times columnist Clyde

Haberman in the article.

We could not agree more with Haberman. There are journalists,

from huge metro papers to small county papers, who work hard to

deliver the truth who come home with paychecks that will never

equal to the paycheck Blair will receive for lying and destroying

the reputation of the journalism profession.

Blair is being rewarded for misleading and lying to readers who

trusted and counted on newspapers to give them the facts and the

truth. It seems that there is no profit in telling the truth in

journalism. Every man and woman who chooses to make journalism his

or her profession knows there is not a lot of money in it. The job

requires long hours, fast-approaching deadlines and harsh public

criticism. But also there is the honor of civil reward and great

responsibility.

Blair didn’t only tarnish the reputation of one of the world’s

largest newspaper but the his trail of destruction trickled down to

his college newspaper, The Diamondback out of the University of

Maryland. The college paper is now dealing with the backlash of

Blair serving as editor in chief.

It is a sad commentary on our society to see people like Blair

cash in on his scandal that made people question more about what

they read in print. We would have rather seen Blair fade way into

nothing. Its comforting to know that New York-based publishers,

whose books live or die with New York Times book reviews, show

little interest in Blair’s book, according to the same USA Today

article.

Hopefully people will ignore the memoirs of this public

plagiarist. Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward got book deals for

their nation-changing reporting; surely there are other journalists

out there who deserve book deals before Blair.