[Previous entry: "The rule of law and the rule of exceptions"] [Next entry: "Farm subsidies and Africa: Cotton's not king"]

07/20/2004:

"Visiting the sins of the individual on a single race"

When USA Today correspondent Jack Kelley-a pleasant colleague when I worked at USAT in the '80s-was recently unmasked as a serial fabricator, I awaited pronouncements similar to those issued by pundits outraged by Jayson Blair's printed lies at the New York Times.

I'm still waiting.

Kelley's fabrications have rightly caused those who care about newspapers to painfully question whether reporters and editors face enough checks and balances in daily journalism.

But where are the hordes of columnists decrying the horrific effects of overambitious white reporters who are too trusted by their editors and shoved into jobs beyond their gifts? In fact, some Kelley co-workers saw him as such a phenom, one whose difficulties handling such pressures took years to expose.

Full Article : trinidadexpress.com