NYT Editor Howell Raines, on Jayson Blair, the 20-something African American reporter who submitted stories with excerpts from other papers and resigned when the NYT began investigating: "The last thing we want to do is demonize Jayson Blair. He wrote a public letter apologizing for a journalistic lapse in integrity. He apologized for it. I can accept that. But my concern is for our readers and our integrity." The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz responds, "Look, this was a promising young black reporter. I wonder if a middle-aged hack would have gotten away with 50 mistakes and still be at that job." (Blair also had a history of factual inaccuracies in his stories, although he had recently improved.) Raines fires back, "If someone wants to have some unbecoming speculation on their television show, that's their prerogative. We have a diverse staff, and we manage them in a very evenhanded way."
Off the record [Observer]