The truth about the Blair affair. (From the Ministry of Truth).

When the New York Times discovered one of its reporters was falsifying stories, it immediately dismissed the reporter and set the record straight -- right? Not exactly, at least not in the case of Jayson Blair.

The Times published a lengthy, 7,200-word apology for Mr. Blair's inaccuracies on May 11th, 11 days after he resigned from the paper But in "Correcting the Record," the Times acknowledged, against interest, that its editors had been aware of Mr. Blair's inaccurate reporting for years but had failed to correct the problem. In short, the problem was not just a reporter deceiving the Times but the Times allowing the deception to continue.

Unless otherwise noted, the following quotes are from the May 11th Times article.

1999: "Sloppy" reporting and appearance

"Mr. Blair was assigned to work in the Times's police bureau, where he churned out article after article about the crimes of the day.... But Jerry Gray, one of several Times editors to become mentors to Mr. Blair, repeatedly warned him that he was too sloppy -- in his reporting and in his appearance."

Nov. 1999: Promoted despite "mistakes"

"In November 1999, the paper promoted Mr. Blair to intermediate reporter, the next step toward winning a full-time staff position."

"Mr. Blair continued to make mistakes, requiring more corrections, more explanations, more lectures about the importance of accuracy."

"Mr. Blair ... clearly needed to cut down on mistakes...."

Jan. 2001: Promoted again; "more errors"

"In January 2001, Mr. Blair was promoted to full-time reporter with the consensus of a recruiting committee of roughly half a dozen people headed by Gerald M. Boyd, then a deputy managing editor, and the approval of [Executive Editor Joseph] Lelyveld."

"But if anything, Mr. Blair's performance after his promotion declined; he made more errors and clashed with more editors. Then came the catastrophes of Sept. 11, 2001, and things got worse. A few weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, he wrote an article laden with errors."

Late 2001: Bad behavior "stood out"

"Mr. Blair's actions stood out. He made mistakes and was unavailable for long stretches."

Jan. 2002: "Extraordinarily high" error rate -

"Mr. Landman sent Mr. Blair a sharply worded evaluation in January 2002, noting that his correction rate was 'extraordinarily high by the standards of the paper.' Mr. Landman then forwarded copies of that evaluation to Mr. Boyd and William E. Schmidt, associate managing editor for news administration, along with a note that read, 'There's big trouble I want you both to be aware of.'"

"When he returned to the newsroom after a two-week break, editors say, efforts were made to help him focus on accuracy rather than productivity. But the inaccuracies soon returned."

April 2002: Receives letter of reprimand 

"His mistakes became so routine, his behavior so unprofessional, that by April 2002, Jonathan Landman, the metropolitan editor, dashed off a two-sentence e-mail message to newsroom administrators that read: 'We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now.' ... The next day, Mr. Blair received a letter of reprimand. He took another brief leave."

"... he returned to the newsroom weeks later.... [W]ith time, he was allowed to tackle larger reporting assignments."

Oct. 2002: Warned that "his job was in peril"

"After taking a leave for personal problems and being sternly warned, both orally and in writing, that his job was in peril ... the newspaper's top two editors ... had guided him to the understaffed national desk, where he was assigned to help cover the Washington sniper case."

"... once again his reporting drew strong criticism, this time from a prosecutor who called a news conference to denounce it."

"By the end of that month, public officials and colleagues Were beginning to challenge his reporting. By November, the investigation has found, he was fabricating quotations and scenes, undetected."

"Between the first coverage of the sniper attacks in late October and late April, Mr. Blair filed articles claiming to be from 20 cities in six states. Yet during those five months, he did not submit a single receipt for a hotel room, rental car or airplane ticket, officials at the Times said. 'To have a national reporter who is working in a traveling capacity for the paper and not file expenses for those trips for a four-month period is certainly in hindsight something that should attract our attention,' Mr. Boyd said."

March 2003: "Lying in his articles"

"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."

April 2003: Editors discuss another promotion?

"By April, [Executive Editor Howell] Raines recalled, senior editors were discussing whether Mr. Blair should be considered for a permanent slot on the national reporting staff. 'My feeling was, here was a guy who had been working hard and getting into the paper on significant stories,' Mr. Raines said."

Late April: Plagiarism issues bring end of the line

"By the end of April another newspaper was raising questions about plagiarism."

"But [Publisher Arthur] Sulzberger emphasized that as The New York Times continues to examine how its employees and readers were betrayed, there will be no newsroom search for scapegoats. 'The person who did this is Jayson Blair,' he said. 'Let's not begin to demonize our executives -- either the desk editors or the executive editor or, dare I say, the publisher.'"

Times puts spin on Blair's tenure and influence

Note the change in tone as the article progresses:

"Mr. Blair, who has resigned from the paper, was a reporter at the Times for nearly four years, and he was prolific."

-- New York Times, May 11, 2003

"Mr. Blair was just one of about 375 reporters at the Times; his tenure was brief."

-- Same article, several paragraphs later

If the New York Times had moved expeditiously to solve the Blair problem, the only blame for his false reporting would have fallen on Blair. But by allowing the problem to continue for years, the Times has brought shame on itself as well as Blair. And, in general, the Times has demonstrated just how interested it is in reporting the truth.

RELATED ARTICLE: Why Was Blair Promoted?

The May 11th New York Times article does not shed much light on this question, since it both suggests and denies that Mr. Blair may have received preferential treatment because he is black.

"The Times offered him [Blair] a slot in an internship program that was then being used in large part to help the paper diversify its newsroom."

"Mr. Blair's Times supervisors and Maryland professors emphasize that he earned an internship at the Times because of glowing recommendations and a remarkable work history, not because he is black."

"The publisher and the executive editor, he [Metropolitan Editor Jonathan Landman] said, had made clear the company's commitment to diversity -- 'and properly so,' he said."

"Mr. Boyd, who is now managing editor, the second-highest-ranking newsroom executive, said last week that the decision to advance Mr. Blair [to full-time reporter in January 2001] had not been based on race.... 'He was a young, promising reporter who had done a job that warranted promotion.'"

"... after a disagreement with a third editor [in late 2001], Patrick LaForge, who tracks corrections for the metropolitan desk, he [Jayson Blair] threatened to take up the issue 'with the people who hired me -- and they all have executive or managing editor in their titles.'"

"By last October [2002], the newspaper's top two editors -- who said they believed that Mr. Blair had turned his life and work around -- had guided him to the understaffed national desk, where he was assigned to help cover the Washington sniper case." (Emphasis added.)

A subsequent New York Times article ("Editor of Times Tells Staff He Accepts Blame for Fraud," May 15th), stated:

"'Our paper has a commitment to diversity and by all accounts he [Mr. Jayson Blair] appeared to be a promising young minority reporter,' [New York Times Executive Editor] Mr. [Howell] Raines said. 'I believe in aggressively providing hiring and career opportunities for minorities.'

"'Does that mean I personally favored Jayson?' he added, a moment later. 'Not consciously. But you have a right to ask if I, as a white man from Alabama, with those convictions, gave him one chance too many by not stopping his appointment to the sniper team. When I look into my heart for the truth of that, the answer is yes.'"