Jayson Blair

Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin posts a letter from dot-com-era entrepreneur Josh Harris in which he criticizes The New York Times for knowingly promoting his company Pseudo.com even though it was "a fake company."

Actually, Media Mob isn't clear on what Mr. Harris is charging—or why he's bothering, since most of the references are to articles from 2001. But some of the articles were written by a pre-scandal Jayson Blair, which prompts Mr. Harris to ask:

Is it ethical for The New York Times to carry the banner of 'the newspaper of record' and claim journalistic integrity since it failed to thoroughly and completely follow up each and every article that Mr.  read more »

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FormerNew York Times reporter Charlie LeDuff is joining the metro team at the Detroit News. Fishbowl NY has the memo, and reports that Mr. LeDuff is packing it up from California and heading back to his native Michigan.  read more »

"The line starts behind the rope," a cashier announced as lunch-hour bargain-seekers bombarded the registers at Midtown's soon-to-be-shuttered Coliseum Books on Friday afternoon.

Many shelves were already cleaned out, as the bankrupt bookstore's liquidation sale approached its final day. (The shop closes for good on Sunday.)

But some riveting titles are still available--at huge discounts--including two copies of Jayson Blair's anti-ethical Burning Down My Master's House, as well as rapper-cum-author Snoop Dogg's classic Love Don't Live Here No More.

Sorry, would-be Candice Bushnells: This reporter snagged the last copy of Will Write For Shoes: How To Write A Chick Lit Novel (um, a gift for said scribe's beloved wife). Just $12.44 with tax--a substantial savings off the sticker price: $22. 95.

Also still available: Bookshelves. Lots of bookshelves.

There's also tracklighting, illuminated window signs (perfect for announcing your own Chapter 11 fire sale), and one 10-inch table saw, just $100.

Still no word, though, on the purchaser of Coliseum's big-ticket item: its existing lease.

- Chris Shott

My most successful item on this blog, to judge from comments, was called Harvard's Plagiarism Scandal, and was successful for two reasons, because I brought up issues of racism in the Kaavya Visnawathan case, and because Roger Ailes, the political strategist, zapped me and started an intense conversation. (Thank you, Mr. Ailes.) [Got that wrong too: comment was from a blogger named Roger Ailes--Weiss, 5/20] Here's what he said:

How is this Harvard's Plagiarism Scandal? Ms. Viswanathan didn't write the book for the Harvard Press, or for a course at Harvard. Harvard had nothing to do with her plagiarism or her book deal. Ruth Shalit is a New Republic scandal because the mag published her pilfered prose; Jack Kelley is a USA Toady scandal for the same reason. Ben Domenech was a Washington Post scandal because Domenech was an untalented, racist twit who was unqualified for the job, which the the Post knew, even if it was ignorant of his plagiarism. But Harvard didn't hire this woman to work for them; it allowed her or her family to pay it a hundred thou or more for the privilege of attending the school. If Ms. Viswanathan fucked a bum while attending Harvard, would that be Harvard's Bum-Fucking Scandal?

Ailes has a point. If I was to write my headline again, I'd say "Harvard student." But I'm going to take him on. As he acknowledges in his counter-examples, sometimes stuff that an individual does on his own ends up sticking to an institution because it seems to reveal some fault in that institution. Connecting Domenech to the Post is something of a stretch; but Ailes pushes it because he thinks it reveals something bad about the Post's standards. Executive editor Howell Raines went down for the Jayson Blair scandal because Blair's fabrication revealed faultlines in the Times culture under Raines.

The reason people are blackening—sorry, besmudging—Harvard with Kaavya Visnawathan's New York-published plagiarisms is that Kaavya's literary meteor seems of a piece with her scholastic meteor—overambitious and patched-together. As Jon Liu has reported in the Independent, Kaavya got into Harvard thanks to a place called IvyWise, which packages students (and which has been scrambling to tone down its glitzy promotional material, which had included Visnawathan's testimonials, because of Liu's righteous scrutiny). And she produced her bestseller through a packager. We don't know where the real Kaavya starts and the packagers stop.

In short, the Visnawathan story is about the cheesiness of high achievement. To what lengths will people go to get statusy badges, including the Harvard badge? Just how do kids get into Ivy League schools these days? In that sense, this is a Harvard scandal. Yes, I know, I'm stretching a little. But if you're a high-profile institution, life isn't fair. Just ask Duke.

Former New York Times executive editor Howell Raines--who was forced out of paper after the Jayson Blair debacle--is now getting out of the West Village, too (and, as far as we can tell, out of New York City entirely).

Mr. Raines recently sold his West 11th Street townhouse for $3.5 million, according to city deed-transfer records.

Mr. Raines--who purchased the house in 1996--has been renting it out for some time, while spending his days in his Pennsylvania country house.

Last May, actress Christina Applegate reportedly rented the 18-foot-wide townhouse while performing on Broadway.  read more »

Mr. Raines hadn't yet responded to an email asking about the sale, as of this posting.

- Michael Calderone

After a 10-month study, the New York Times Diversity Council issued its confidential internal report yesterday. The 39-page document, made available to staffers, describes The Times as "a newspaper at risk" on diversity matters and says the paper is "losing ground in comparison to business that are among the leaders in diversity."

The council, a 23-member group including newsroom and business employees, was founded in 2004, in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal. The "Jayson Blair debacle continues to haunt the Times and continues to affect diversity efforts, according to dozens of interviews with employees," its report declares.

The report says that no evidence connects Blair's transgressions to the diversity efforts then in place at The Times, but that the perception of such a link still lingers: "[in] the minds of many, however, Mr. Blair remains an example of newspaper diversity run amok."

"Many in the newsroom said they believed the Blair case had a lasting, deleterious effect on the way minority reporters and editors were viewed, both inside and outside the newsroom," the report says.

The council was chaired by picture editor Jose Lopez and vice president for real-estate development Hussain Ali-Khan. Managing editor Jill Abramson was its advisor.

According to the report, the Times newsroom is currently 82.5 percent white, slightly less than the industry average of 86.5 percent. Only 14 percent of newsroom managers are minorities, the council found, and there are currently no minorities on the newspaper masthead and only one nonwhite on the company's executive committee.

"[W]omen and minorities remain underrepresented at the Times and minorities are seriously underrepresented in its managerial ranks," the report says.

In 2003 and 2004, three senior managers who were nonwhite left The Times, including managing editor Gerald Boyd, who resigned after the Blair debacle. "This was a major blow to the diversity of the senior management ranks," the report says, "but more disturbing, it exposed the newspaper's lack of depth in diversity among managers."

The council defined diversity in terms of employees' race, gender and sexual orientation. Religious and political differences were not accounted for.

The report also raises the question of news judgment, challenging the decision to have run the August 9, 2005 obituary of Ebony magazine magnate John Johnson inside the paper: "Some African-Americans believed Mr. Johnson's obituary deserved front-page placement and saw the fact that it wasn't played there as a case of white editors failing to recognize his cultural significance."

The report issues eight recommendations meant to increase diversity. Senior management, it says, "starting with the publisher, chief executive officer and executive editor, must do more to lead by example." The council does not advocate a quota system, but recommends that all hires be vetted by the recruiting committee with an eye to diversity concerns. Other proposals include creating the position of senior vice president for diversity, increasing bonuses tied to diversity improvement, and developing a mentoring and career-development program.

The council also suggests that the council itself be retained, to advise the diversity VP and publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.

In response to the report, the masthead put out its own 15-page message yesterday. The brass noted the dearth of newsroom diversity, but countered that 30 percent of Times newsroom hires in 2005--26 of 85--were minorities.

In an additional written statement, issued through a spokesperson, Sulzberger said: "I am very proud of the work done by the Diversity Council. Our business environment requires that we continue to push ourselves to become more diverse because our audiences are changing. We must change along with them and systematically hire and promote from a wider segment of the population."

--Gabriel Sherman

With this sentence and the next, allow me to greet you, the readers of this column.  read more »

Deposed New York Times executive editor Howell Raines, sidelined and mostly silent after his evictio  read more »

"The whole suggestion that I'm not contrite is just bullshit," Jayson Blair said.Mr.  read more »

The last time Daniel Okrent worked for The New York Times , he was a student at the University of Mi  read more »

"Magazine editors are the new rock stars," said David Zinczenko, the dreamy, hazel-eyed editor in ch  read more »

On his second day in the post of Executive Editor of The New York Times, Bill Keller announced the a  read more »

At 1 p.m.  read more »

The New York Times’ former executive editor Howell Raines has gone fishing--and so has the new  read more »

The New York Times is like Webster's Dictionary. It's the final authority.  read more »

The New York Times ' former executive editor Howell Raines has gone fishing-and so has the newspaper  read more »

The decision last week by New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.  read more »

The staff of The New York Times hasn't seen much of Howell Raines lately.Or at least not the Howell  read more »

At 10:31 a.m. on June 5, staffers at The New York Times received an e-mail announcing a 10:30 a.m.  read more »

To: Jayson Blair, c/o David Vigliano Literary Agency, New York From: Myndee Brady-Stahr, Director of  read more »

The nub of every con game is that the mark wants something for nothing.  read more »

"That was my favorite," Jayson Blair said.  read more »

“That was my favorite,” Jayson Blair said.  read more »

"Maybe it'll make him a little mature," Jayson Blair-the 27-year-old reporter who managed to success  read more »

This is only the beginning of it, not the end.  read more »

On the evening of April 28, Jim Roberts, the national editor for The New York Times , called his rep  read more »