Jayson Blair facts for kids

Jayson Thomas Blair (born March 23, 1976) is an American former journalist who worked for The New York Times. He resigned from the newspaper in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of fabrication and plagiarism in his stories.

Blair published a memoir of this period, titled Burning Down My Masters' House (2004), recounting his career, a diagnosis of bipolar disorder after his resignation, and his view of race relations at the newspaper. He later established a support group for people with bipolar disorder and became a life coach.

Background

Blair was born in Columbia, Maryland, the son of a federal executive and a schoolteacher. While attending the University of Maryland, College Park, he was a student journalist. For the 1996–1997 academic year, he was selected as the second African-American editor-in-chief of its student newspaper, The Diamondback. According to a 2004 article by the Baltimore Sun, "some of his fellow students opposed his selection describing him as 'an elbows-out competitor.'"

After a summer interning at The New York Times in 1998, Blair was offered an extended internship there. He declined in order to complete more coursework for graduation, but returned to the Times in June 1999 with a year of coursework left to complete. That November, he was classified as an "intermediate reporter." He was later promoted to a full reporter and then to editor.

Aftermath

The investigation, known as the Siegal committee, found heated debate among the staff over affirmative action hiring, as Blair is black. Jonathan Landman, Blair's editor, told the Siegal committee he felt that Blair's being black played a large part in the younger man's initial promotion in 2001 to full-time staffer. "I think race was the decisive factor in his promotion," he said. "I thought then and I think now that it was the wrong decision."

Others disagreed.

Executive editor Howell Raines and managing editor Gerald Boyd resigned after losing newsroom support in the aftermath of the scandal.

After resigning from the Times, Blair struggled with severe depression and, according to his memoir, entered a hospital for treatment. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder for the first time. .....

Later career

Blair later returned to college to complete his postponed degree.

The year after he left the Times, Blair wrote a memoir, Burning Down My Master's House, published by New Millennium Books in 2004. Its initial print run was 250,000 copies; some 1,400 were sold in its first nine days. The Associated Press reported that the potential audience for his book may have gained enough information from the New York Times coverage of the reporting scandal. Although most reviews were critical, sales of the book increased after Blair was interviewed by Larry King and Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly.

..... He also discussed journalistic practices at the Times, and his view of race relations and disagreements among senior editors at the newspaper.

In 2006, Blair was running a support group for people with bipolar disorder, for which he has received continuing treatment. In 2007 he became a life coach, working in Virginia, opening his own coaching center five years later. He was still working in this field in 2016.

See also

• Judith Miller
• Brian Williams
• Sabrina Erdely
• Wendy Bergen
• Jack Kelley
• Janet Cooke
• Johann Hari
• Journalism scandals
• Kevin Deutsch
• Stephen Glass
• Ruth Shalit
• Claas Relotius
• Fake news