The darker side of the Jayson Blair affair
Jim Cohen, in his Uncommon Sense column on America’s Voices ("A Forum for Conservative Americans") made a similar argument, blaming the problem primarily on what he describes as the country’s "addiction" to the "pain-killer" of affirmative action. Connecting the Blair case to the anti-affirmative action suit against the University of Michigan pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, he concluded that "Proponents of continued affirmative action amount to little more than enablers of the status quo they claim to revile."
While appearing sympathetic to Blair himself as a product of affirmative action gone haywire, Cohen managed to convey the idea that this individual was not an exception: "While there certainly has been formal bending of standards in many contexts in the name of diversity, the real issue is a lot more subtle than that. The real issue is a more informal, incremental process by which promising minorities are given just a little extra benefit of the doubt, each instance of which seems harmless and perfectly justified, but which over time results cumulatively in people being pushed too far, too fast, often with an unhappy result." Obviously "minority hires" are guilty until proven innocent.
Robert Clegg, a contributing editor to National Review Online, launched a more frontal attack on both African-Americans and affirmative action.. He marshalled statistics to argue that Blair probably benefited from "double, lowered standards" before he joined the Times. In the process Clegg went far beyond the discredited journalist: "In the late 1990s, when Blair was attending the University of Maryland, the median SAT verbal score of black enrollees was 60 points lower there than the median white score, and the SAT math score gap was 110 points. The four-year graduation rate for blacks was only 45 percent, versus 66 percent for whites… Black enrollees received some sort of remediation at almost triple the rate of whites: 43 percent of black students had to take at least one remedial course, versus 16 percent for whites."
Clearly, whichever way they chose to view it, race was the issue and affirmative action the target. The underlying assumption, of course, was that all black/minority employees benefiting from affirmative action are -- by definition -- lame ducks incapable of competing on equal terms with their white counterparts who, presumably, are -- by definition -- hired and promoted solely on the basis of talent, competence and/or diligence. The parallels with the caste-based reservations debate in India are remarkable.
Fortunately, in the wake of the Blair affair, such arguments were countered by blacks, whites and an occasional brown. One of most interesting among the last category was by Macarena Hernandez, a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News who had been an intern at NYT at the same time as Blair. Coincidentally or otherwise, the latter’s misdemeanours first came to light when he plagiarised her story about Juanita Anguiano, the mother of a missing U.S. soldier in Iraq. Writing in The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, Hernandez explained that she was provoked to comment on the case because "It was obvious that the conversation about what happened had taken a wrong turn."
Her piece challenged the conservative attempt to use the Blair case as a stick with which to beat affirmative action, its supporters and its beneficiaries. In her view, her former colleague’s misdeeds had little to do with race, diversity or affirmative action. "I am a product of the same program that supposedly ‘created’ him," she pointed out. Having worked hard to prove herself as an intern because she did not want anyone to be able to say that the only reason she had filed stories from one of the most important newsrooms in the world was because she was brown, she said, "I resent that his crimes will now make suspects of other journalists of color… If newspapers kill programs like the one Jayson and I went through because of what he did, they will increase the damage he inflicted on our profession. They will have allowed a thief to steal from the poor."
"It`s not that there isn`t racism in the newsrooms of America," Hernandez concluded. "There is. But that wasn`t what brought Jayson Blair down. And what he did has reinforced racist views, prompting some to say, "Look what happens when we let them in."
One of the first to sharply question the intrusion of race into what should have been a debate on journalistic ethics and practice was NYT’s own Op-Ed columnist, Bob Herbert. According to him, the undeniable fact that Jayson Blair betrayed his profession, his paper and its readers had nothing to do with his being black or with paper`s effort to diversify its newsroom. Describing as preposterous the implication by some that blacks can get away with journalistic equivalent of murder at The Times, he pointed out that black reporters, editors and columnists who are doing fine and serious work do not deserve to be stigmatised by people who can see them only through prism of a stereotype.
A number of writers highlighted the double standards of commentators who used the Blair scandal to undermine affirmative action. According to Amy Alexander, a Boston journalist writing on www.africana.com, "The ‘Liberals Gone Wild’ angle … is … patently dishonest, especially when you compare the Blair Affair to recent cases of fabrication and loose professional ethics involving white male journalists such as Mike Barnicle, Stephen Glass, and Bob Greene."
"Unlike Jayson Blair, or for that matter, Patricia Smith and Janet Cooke, Barnicle, Glass, Greene and other miscreants from the overwhelming white and male press corps are not viewed as being examples of how ‘Undeserving White Guys are Ruining Journalism,’" she pointed out. According to her, neither Smith nor Cooke (both black) "ever found work in mainstream media again, unlike their white counterparts, making race clearly a deciding factor not in the hiring of bad journalists, but in the likelihood of their rehabilitation. As usual, white men are the main beneficiaries of that particular perk, and not recognizing the double-standard inherent in how these two distinct groups of fabricators have been perceived requires a kind of willful ignorance that is all too prevalent."
As George E. Curry, editor of the NNPA News Service and www.BlackPressUSA.com, wrote on www.seeingblack.com, "…it was not considered a blemish on the records of White authors when Clifford Irving submitted a fake biography of Howard Hughes or when it was disclosed that Joe McGinniss, author of The Last Brother [Ted Kennedy], had borrowed liberally from Doris Kearns Goodwin`s book, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys
." Similarly, he pointed out, "When it was discovered that columnist Mike Barnicle of the Boston Globe and Stephen Glass of the New Republic had engaged in writing stories that contained more fiction than facts, no one indicted all White journalists for their misdeeds or blamed it on White privilege. To be blunt, they were simply thieves. And so was Blair."C. Gerald Fraser, a former reporter for The New York Times and the Daily News, writing on the website of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, confirmed this view: "It`s not the same when a white journalist fabricates… These white journalists are simply "bad apples." However, his analysis of the Blair imbroglio went further.
According to him, "It is more important in this affair to differentiate between routine newsroom activity and newsroom diversity activity. Inside the newsroom of the New York Times Blair`s race didn`t matter -- regardless of his level of experience. Big newspapers, especially, like to hire journalists who are already stars. But top editors also seek young people with star potential. These neophytes are then ‘anointed,’ which translates to encouragement-plus. Within the newsroom the anointed may be envied or detested by colleagues and scorned by some editors, but he or she is shielded. Anointment means top editors want this man or woman to succeed so the road must be cleared of obstacles…" In his view, Blair was quite clearly anointed.
"There have been black journalists at The Times with star potential," Fraser pointed out. "Some were encouraged, but none was anointed. Until Blair, the anointed were white. Because of this aspect of newsroom culture, Blair`s race need not have been a significant element affecting his career."
Tony Insolia, former editor of Newsday, seemed to agree. "First of all, let all who believe in affirmative action as a worthwhile goal stop wringing their hands over the Jayson Blair fiasco." he wrote in the paper he once edited. "Why? Because what he did is not about race. And Blair himself, though he is black, is also not about race. This case was about favoritism and dereliction… Unfortunately, just bringing up the question of affirmative action in reciting Blair`s misdeeds does an injustice to the worthiness of a program whose goals are fair and noble. And the American press is far better for it. Rather than look at some of its failures, let`s look at many of its successes…
"I`m sure newspapers around the country can cite minority journalists who have contributed greatly to the craft. I am just as sure that many would not have been given the opportunity had not affirmative action programs been adopted. But just as we find failures in all walks of life, we have them in journalism also. That`s all Jayson Blair is - an example of failure. He happens to be black, which is of little importance in explaining his failure."
This view is strengthened by accounts of Jayson Blair’s social and family background, personality and relationship with his community. According to freelance writer Dennis Hans, his black identity was apparently not an important part of Blair’s life. Nor, apparently, was he particularly sympathetic to other people of colour. In a perceptive piece on www.scoop.co.nz provocatively titled What if Jayson Blair were black?,
Hans not only described Blair’s privileged background, and his possibly related attitude and behaviour towards fellow blacks, including juniors at newspapers he worked with, but he also made important points about the raison d’etre of affirmative action and the push for diversity in the newsroom. In view of the parallels between race and caste, his argument is relevant in the Indian context, too."News media managers who take the idea of "diversity" seriously are looking for
a newsroom that reflects the greater community - town, city or nation - it serves," Hans wrote. "The thinking goes that such a newsroom will be more in touch with the happenings, trends and concerns of the various ethnicities, cultures and sub-cultures in the area. Just as important, reporters and editors from diverse backgrounds will benefit from the daily rubbing of shoulders and newsroom give-and-take. Understanding will increase as preconceived notions are contradicted and, in some cases, confirmed. A diverse staff bodes well for the future, as kids of all backgrounds see people reporting the news who look and sound just like them, which lets them know that journalism is one more career option.
"Diversity does not mean a newsroom of straight, white, middle-of-the-road males whose diversity is expressed in the ties they wear. Nor does it mean a multi-hued newsroom comprised of people who share - or have adapted to - the values of straight, white, middle-of-the-road males. Diversity is not just about skin color and ethnicity. It’s about gender, sexual orientation, religion or lack thereof, ideology and other things I could think of if my own thinking weren’t limited in ways of which I myself am unaware…"
Clearly, the Jayson Blair affair is far more than the sum of its parts. On the face of it, it is a scandal involving journalistic ethics. It certainly provided critics with an opportunity to take The New York Times down a peg or two. At another level it provoked a referendum on diversity in journalism. But perhaps most importantly it holds a mirror to professional practices within news organisations that militate against both real ethics and true diversity.
Contact:ammujo2003@yahoo.co.in
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