By Bob Parks ——Bio and Archives--October 30, 2009
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Hard as it may be to believe, one of this decade’s biggest disgraces has been asked to present a speech on the very subject that was his downfall. No, I’m not referring to George Bush’s speech about leadership. I’m talking about Jayson Blair’s upcoming address to Washington and Lee University. To their Journalism Ethics Institute. (Now that I re-read that first paragraph, I can see how it may have been misleading.) Blair, you likely recall, rose quickly as a reporter at the New York Times, eventually landing several major assignments, including filing over 50 pieces on the Beltway Sniper (who is also back in the news, but for a different reason). Eventually, another writer identified instances in which Blair had plagiarized her work, and under additional scrutiny other problems surfaced: false quotes, high error rates, more instances of plagiarism. In May of 2003, the paper took to the front page to apologize for Blair’s actions.There seems to be nothing a person can do to be shunned into oblivion. Be it Levi Johnston or now Jayson Blair, it appears the only thing that can get you banned from the public sphere for life is outing a Democrat president who cigarred an intern. Anything less is grounds for a second chance. Or third, or fourth…. h/t Joey and Newsbusters
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Bob Parks is a is a member/writer of the National Advisory Council of Project 21. Bob’s websites are Black & Right and youtube.com/BlackAndRight