Crocodile Tears

"I am sorry to hear that more people have fallen in this sequence of events that I had unleashed," Jayson Blair has written in a strangely worded e-mail statement. "I wish the rolling heads had stopped with mine." Say what you will about Jayson, but at least he's man enough to forgive his former slave master.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Call me old fashioned, but it still disturbs me that every unedited writing I've seen by Blair contains at least one grammatical mistake.

[T. Hartin]

Too true - for an ace J-school near-graduate, he seems to be pretty infelicitous with words. Although the image he conjures of of his severed head manfully preventing the Raines' severed head from rolling any further (down a slippery slope, one presumes) is one I rather like.

[Sven]

Ah the Internet: The last refuge of a scoundrel.

[Joe Dokes]

The following quote disturbs me most.

"The moment I began to see parallels between his life and mine was the moment things began falling apart," Blair wrote, according to the Post. ... The frustrations of black men in this world can explode, crescendo into a huge rage that can manifest itself in some odd and sometimes unclear ways."

Here is a guy that by all accounts got every single possible break. People went out of their way to help the guy. They gave him more second chances than Robert Downey Jr. and Daryl Strawberry combined. They would eventually give him so much rope he hung himself.

Yet, he has the nerve to discuss "The Frustrations of black men..."

Exactly what frustrations did he have? The continued frustration of being caught plagiarizing? The continued frustration of not being held accountable? Or is it the final frustration of being fired for a perfectly legitimate reason?

Up until this point I disagreed with many editorial writers who used the Jayson Blair fiasco as an example of the failure of affirmative action (I felt that there were other better reasons to oppose affirmative action). Now seeing the further utter lack of responsibility and his black rage blame game, I am willing to see that perhaps affirmative action is at least partially to blame.

Regards

Joe

[Beerzie Boy]

Jesus Christ. The Government lies to us about the war and all the press can obsess on is this idiot's plagarism. Get over it people, and try examining what really matters a little more closely.

[Tim Stich]

The Press are of course obsessed with matters that concern their own profession. Why don't you just stop reading about it Beerzie Boy. Stop...right...now.

[Franklin Harris]

"[I]t still disturbs me that every unedited writing I've seen by Blair contains at least one grammatical mistake."

Indeed. His seeming inability to write well calls into question his reputation as a hotshot reporter. Even his edited copy (when it is truly his) is unremarkable.

[Jesus Christ]

Beerzie Boy, the government did not lie to you about the war. Saddam had and used and failed to disclose his WMD program, supported terrorists directly with cash for killing my chosen people, and was a manace to society in general. I could tell you more, but prefer for you to accept truth with faith.

Bless you my son.

[Warren]

who cares? shut up about Blair already

[Demosthenes]

Excuse me, Jesus Christ (or is it really Dennis the MENACE), the government did lie to you about the war. But you're referring to the wrong war.

The lying concerns the "Gulf of Tonkin" deception.

[Steve]

"Too true - for an ace J-school near-graduate, he seems to be pretty infelicitous with words."

Mark Steyn (link via Welch): "No J-chool. Don't believe journalism is a profession and trying to teach it as such only worsens the quality of the writing and narrows the socio-economic pool from which journalists are drawn."

http://www.ideasfactory.com/writing/features/writ_feature20.htm

[omnibus bill]

He didn't graduate journalism school, or college for that matter.

I'm sure lots of journalism school dropouts get jobs at the Times...