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 GORDON WHITEHALL, JR.:
"Jayson Blair: A Look Black Through the Crooked Glass"
I recall a chat I had a few weeks back with my brother-in-law who was recounting a passing conversation with a close friend about the unraveling of Jayson Blair and the New York Times. For the sake of journalistic integrity I must relay that my brother-in-law's friend is in no way an expert on the pulse of American hyper-culture, nor does he have any real insight into the cultish cycles of modern media. In fact My brother-in-law's friend has no more connection to this topic than the fact that his neighbors daughter attended the same middle school as Stephen Glass, a reporter you may remember who wrote for the New Republic some years back, and whose gracious free flowing style and apparently creative formatting had a greater degree of relevance to the Atlantic Monthly, than to that of a nationally recognized journal on political affairs. She and Stephen never did share the same classes, they were not in the same year, she turned twelve in September, which I suppose in the fractional world of children would make her twelve and three-quarters, and Mr. Glass has moved on, to be sure, to some illustrious post after graduating from Georgetown Law some years back.
One would expect Glass and Blair share much in common, both are obviously talented writers, endlessly creative, gregarious - each practiced in the charming arts, and in a word: fraudulent. But why does Blair cut so deep, when the same infractions imposed upon the same public by Stephen Glass merely fade away? Is Mr. Blair justified for having turned the race card? Can an affluent Jewish kid get away with the same "shtik" that would otherwise trap a black man? Do I really need to answer that? I believe the real stinking mess with Blair is that he managed to tarnish the reputation of an institution that trades on the truth of its content, and trusts its employees to be forthright, but of even greater consequence is the fact he dismantled the careers of those that lent their trust. All while crying foul under that overarching and abused claim of white hegemony. Gerry Boyd, the managing editor of the Times until his resignation was begrudgingly accepted by Saltzberger, is a true professional and experienced newsman, who also happens to be a black man.
Facts it seems are the folly of an unbridled imagination in Blairs world, where all things are subject to a fantastic arbitration of consequence, specifically the dischord they strike upon the twisted self-perception of poor disadvantaged Jayson. I've heard Mr. Blair recently signed a book contract, and I understand the working title to be "Burning Down my Masters' House," I can't think of a more inappropriate title for a book written by a man who without reasonable credentials rose above the ranks of his peers, received preferential assignments, top-of-the-fold by-lines, and all with no more time invested than the length of my first marriage. Shame on you Jayson.
Gordon Whitehall Jr., heir to the Whitehall fortune is the principal managing partner of The Whitehall Group LLP., a Connecticut-based think tank following consumer trends in the condiment sector. The Whitehall Group publishes various scholarly journals including "Catsup and Us," "Mustard and Them," as well as "Mayonnaise!" Mr. Whitehall lives in Stamford with his third wife Kimberly.
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 BERNIE M. MONTAGUE:
"Jayson Blair: Playing the Odds"
Being a professional journalist now for some twenty-odd decades, I have seen, done, thought about, heard about, read about, spoke about, and reported about just about every god-darnedest thing on this planet. And that's no understatement. I've covered dozens of presidencies, hundreds of wars, the rise and fall of nations, and I've seen literally millions of young reporters come and go.
Seriously, I've been around, and I get around. And I get things done, too. That's why I felt compelled to put my two cents and a hay-penny in on the whole Jayson Blair fuss - Jayson Blair being the young up-and-comer at the NYTimes who was forced to quit his job when it was found he'd "plagiarized" and "made up"stories on a regular basis.
Now I ask, dear public, why must we over-react to everything? Come on now, did he really do anything wrong? I think not.
You see - Jayson Blair is a guy getting things done. He's a man on deadline, and he's got to produce. Most people don't understand the pressures that those of us in news face. They cannot fathom the inconvenience of having to write your stories around facts that you may or may not have time to get.
Sometimes it is downright hard to do. For example, I don't know how many times that I'm supposed to go pick up laundry before the cleaners close, but I still have to get my story in. So what am I going to do? Come to work tomorrow with a dirty shirt? Don't be ridiculous - I call upon my years of experience to make an educated guess on the facts of a story.
I call it "playing the odds."
For example, if I'm covering a recent murder and I don't have time to call the police station (you know how awful those phone trees can be), I make some simple assumptions: we all know that most murderers are black, so I identify the murderer as a black man. We also know that most black men deal or use crack, so I say it was a drug-related crime. We also know that most black men like big-bottomed women, so I say that he likes big-bottomed women.
And there's the story. And you know what? I'm usually right, and I'm always wearing a clean shirt, ladies.
Journalists have always been under a lot of pressure: to be objective, to be fair, etc. Well, it is hard to be objective when you have firm beliefs in something and when you are trying to get a goddamed Pulitzer before you die. All this is compounded with the emergence of 24-7 news. How can we keep up without making some stuff up? And is it so bad? For chrissakes, people watch TV all the time and don't complain that it isn't real. Did people riot in the streets because J.R. wasn't really shot?
My point is proven. Now give a guy a break and lay off a hard-working, creative man like Jayson Blair.
Bernie M. Montague is a journalist for "What's Up Weston", a weekly paper covering the news and culture in Weston, Wyoming. He has previously worked on "The Daily Shiznit", and The "Tallahassee Times-Spectator-Observer," and many other publications that he insists are too numerous to mention.
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