Comments on: Blame It On the Bipolar: Jayson Blair Returns!

By: BIRDZILLA

BIRDZILLA — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 20:47:02 +0000

More from NEWSREEK and its smelling news stories

By: Laura(southernxyl)

Laura(southernxyl) — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 03:41:09 +0000

I used to have a person with bipolar disorder in my group at work. Whatever other difficulties she may have had, her honesty and integrity were outstanding. I can just see people thinking that they never want to employ anyone with a personality disorder like that if it makes them lie like Jayson Blair. Shame on Blair for not taking responsibility for his actions. Did being bipolar prevent him from knowing right and wrong?

By: Ralph Phelan

Ralph Phelan — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 23:13:24 +0000

In a sense what he’s saying may all be true.

If you’ve ever had the misfortune to have someone with a major personality disorder (bipolar, borderline, narcissistic) in your life, you know the lies and manipulation and drama are part of the territory.

And it’s prety impressive that the Times’ affirmative action programs are so strong that, just by being black, a clinically insane man could become one of the Times’ hottest rising stars.

By: JMK

JMK — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 16:50:05 +0000

It’s interesting that the NY Times has all these excuses ready for Jayson Blair…as if this sort of thing isn’t a common practice at the NY Times.

If they claim Jayson Blair was an abberation, then how do they explain Walter Duranty, the “Pulitzer Prize Winning NY Times writer” who extolled Stalin’s “Worker’s Paradise” during the 1930s. If Duranty was in the former USSR at that time, then he’s a vile liar and an apologist for one of the world’s worst mass murderers, if he merely wrote his pablum from his Upper East Side apartment, then he did what Jayson Blair did!

Personally, I think Blair merely followed Duranty’s lead and that sort of calumny seems SOP at the NY Times and seems to have been so for quite a long time.

By: Heliotrope

Heliotrope — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:59:10 +0000

Jayson Blair turned in the copy his editors wanted to read. He was working with a comic book mindset and scooping up all the perks along the way. The editors kept loading up his plate and he learned to skate through with very little effort.

He does not deserve a pass, by any means. However, when he kept getting his “actions affirmed” (an intentional pun) and moved on up, what was the NYT teaching him?

As for his resurrection under the pi-polar headline, he will never outlive his ruined reputation in the journalism world.

By: Gayle Miller

Gayle Miller — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:56:04 +0000

So he’s back – has he learned anything?

As hard-nosed as I can be at times, I do believe in forgiveness. If the Jayson Blair that has returned to us has learned humility, perseverence, the ability to do his OWN work and do it honestly and professionally – then perhaps he has something to bring to the party. If he hasn’t learned anything – then he can just disappear again!

By: RedBeard

RedBeard — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 13:51:42 +0000

It was just a matter of time before some sappy entity would come along to rehabilitate this guy’s career, based upon his “illness.” Is it just me, or are others equally sick and tired of the excuses being offered for bad behavior?