Reply
Sun 8 Jun, 2003 11:45 pm
QUESTION: With all the power of the pen, Fourth Estate respect... isn't there any legal punishment for the type of outright lying attributed to Jayson Blair?
He 'quoted' people, who never spoke to him. Could they sue the NYT?
Has this done damage to affirmative hires? Proved a point about AA? Or did it have little or nothing to do with AA?
Was Raines ejected (forced to resign) due to the paper's possible upcoming legal problems due to Blair's fictionalized 'interviews'?
The Jayson Blair fiasco is only the tip of the iceberg in my opinion. I have often wondered how and why the media isn't taken to task for reporting unsubstantiated facts and obvious falsehoods.
I suppose people he fabricated stories and quotes about could sue but they'd have to prove that they suffered some sort of damages to get anything. I don't know if any of the fabriocated quotes were defamatory in any way...
The only real link to AA IMO, is that this came up while thr UofMich lawsuit is in the headlines.
Raines should have gone on day one of this fiasco. He's shot his mouth off about how other papers should fire people for shoddy reporting but wasn't willing to live up to the same standard he's pressed other papers to live up to. I doubt his leaving had anything to do with any lawsuits. I think there was a mini-revolt within the NYTimes. It seems he wasn't a well liked man...
fishin' wrote:The only real link to AA IMO, is that this came up while thr UofMich lawsuit is in the headlines.
Actually, Raines said straight out that when he "looked in his heart" he knew that Blair's being black had helped keep the axe from falling long before it did. That makes it very much about AA.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace