How should media cover Blair's book?
Commentary: Sports writer reflects on time at the Times
By Jon Friedman, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 12:01 AM ET Feb. 20, 2004
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- People in the news media face a painful dilemma: How should we handle the upcoming publication of Jayson Blair's memoir, "Burning Down My Masters' House"?
Blair, then 27, resigned in disgrace last year as a New York Times (NYT: news, chart, profile) reporter after his editors discovered fabrications in story after story that he had written.
Plus, the firestorm surrounding his misdeeds became a major news story that tore apart the Times, generally regarded as America's most influential and prestigious newspaper, and its top two editors were forced to resign.
As for Blair, he didn't come out of it too badly, especially for a disgraced journalist. His mug landed on the cover of Newsweek, and all of the hoopla helped land a publisher (New Millennium Press) for his book, due out in early March.
Personally, I'd like to round up every copy of Blair's unspeakable book and deposit them in the world's largest remainder bin. That way, we'd be done with him. And I would also wish a pox on the house of any responsible media outlet that gives this despicable "journalist" any airtime or column space.
And this is the crux of the journalism profession's dilemma: Blair's book is a news event, maybe even a big one, and our job is to report the news. And even as I bash him, I know I'm also giving Blair what he and his publisher crave: publicity.
But as Mick Jagger once said, for celebrities, any publicity is good publicity.
And for Blair, the publicity machine is cranking up. Katie Couric will interview him twice -- first for a taped "Dateline NBC" segment to air March 5 and then three days later for a live appearance on the "Today" show.
NBC has no misgivings, as its coverage of Blair "by no means suggests that his points will go unchallenged," said Caryn Mautner, a spokeswoman for "Dateline NBC." "His behavior caused an uproar at one of the greatest news organizations in the world," she said. "How and why this happened sounds like a story to us."
Blair is "absolutely" not being paid by NBC for the interviews, Mautner said.
Whatever. Maybe I'm just a fuddy-duddy on this subject. Jack Shafer, a Slate magazine editor-at-large, shrugs off my suggestion that it's a sin for a journalist to publicize Blair's book.
"It's journalistically defensible," Shafer, a widely read media critic, told me. "I would interview him if an interview were available to me. We're sort of in an era of no shame. Caveat emptor. If someone is interested in how and why he did this, I can't be appalled."
There is one saving grace.
Shafer, echoing the conventional wisdom in the media industry, said he "can't really imagine" Blair's book turning into a best-seller because it would appear to have a limited appeal outside of the world of howling journalists.
Even so, Blair's book comes at a bad time for the Times, which once again finds itself in another controversy about accuracy. Critics are challenging its provocative narrative in the Jan. 25 Sunday magazine about the startlingly high number of female sex slaves around the nation. On Feb. 15, the Times responded with a nearly 500-word note from the editors that stood by the story while acknowledging some relatively minor factual errors were made.
What more is there to add about the lamentable Blair?
Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker said when his magazine put Blair on the cover, the story was "very newsworthy." Now that the Times has restored a sense of order to the newsroom, Whitaker says: "I have some very real doubts" if the public will find the Blair saga to be fascinating.
Whitaker also said: "My basic feeling is that we've moved on" and he said it will "take a lot" to rekindle his interest in the subject today.
Sure, I can yell and scream and call Blair every name in the book. In his eyes, all that does is make him even more famous.
Wise guy
As an antidote to thinking about Blair, I spoke with Mike Wise, a 10-year Times veteran (and my favorite sportswriter at the paper).
Earlier this month, Wise, 40, resigned and joined the Washington Post so he could be with his fiancée, Allison Klein, a reporter with the Baltimore Sun.
In his wry way, Wise pointed out how much the Times has changed since he arrived in 1994. In his pre-hire interview, one notable Times editor tried to impress Wise by saying, "We are the paper that doesn't regularly cover Michael Jackson."
Wise had to be one of the most unlikely sports reporters that the Times ever hired. At the time, he said, he was "a million-to-one shot" to get a job there.
When the Times hired Wise, he was a part-time copy editor at the San Jose Mercury News and wrote freelance stories for the Times on the side. He had originally come to the attention of the editors when he won an Associated Press sports writing contest for small newspapers as a columnist for the now-defunct Sacramento Union.
The Times, to its credit, took a chance on Wise despite his relatively meager credentials.
"I wanted someone who was going to peak at the New York Times," said Neil Amdur, who was the paper's sports editor when Wise was hired and is now is its national recruiting editor.
Wise is a throwback to the old-fashioned image of a street-smart sportswriter, more Oscar Madison than Oscar de la Renta. When I met him for dinner, he arrived wearing a scruffy old ski cap.
Wise stood in contrast to the slick, up-and-coming Jayson Blair. He closely observed Blair when the miscreant was transferred briefly to the Times' sports department, and he was struck by the young reporter's ability to kiss up to colleagues.
"He'd actually recite passages of your stories back to you," Wise recalled. "He knew all of the ins and outs of being a newsroom schmoozer. He was better than me!"
Above all, Wise remains loyal to his former employer. "The Times wasn't my work," he said. "It was my life."
Please send your reply to JFRiedman@MarketWatch.com
Jon Friedman is media editor for CBS.MarketWatch.com in New York.
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