A Fragile Trust

A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at the New York Times “A Fragile Trust” tells the shocking story of Jayson Blair, perhaps the most infamous serial plagiarist of our time, and how the uncovering of his deceptions rocked the New York Times. In 2003, Blair was caught plagiarizing the work of other reporters and supplementing his writing with fabricated details in dozens of different stories published in the Times. The ensuing media frenzy left a major blemish on the history of the Old Grey Lady, which just a year earlier had won a record seven Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of 9/11. The fact that Blair is African-American received particular emphasis, and accounts of the “Blair Affair” reveled in the sordid details of drug abuse, racism, mental illness, white guilt, and power struggles inside the hallowed halls of the New York Times.