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Boyd deconstructs Blair affairBy Jeff Roulston NABJ Convention Online Staff Gerald Boyd was greeted with cheers and a standing ovation as he took the stage in front of a ballroom packed with NABJ members yesterday. “My cup truly runneth over,” Boyd said, overcome with emotion, when the cheering finally subsided. Boyd spoke publicly for the first time about the incident now known as “the Jayson Blair Affair” and his resignation from the New York Times on June 5. Blair resigned from the Times on May 1 after Times editors uncovered multiple instances of plagiarism and fabrication of stories. Boyd, considered the highest-ranking black newspaper editor in the country before his resignation, was named NABJ’s Journalist of the Year in 2001. He thanked the crowd for its support in his time of difficulty. “Your e-mails, your phone calls, your letters and your prayers have all meant so much to [my wife] Robin and I.” Boyd reminisced about breaking into the business as a copy boy at his hometown paper, the St. Louis Dispatch, where he eventually covered national politics as a White House correspondent. He talked about his 20-year career with the Times, in which he rose through the ranks, serving as Metro editor, assistant managing editor, deputy managing editor and finally managing editor. He described what it was like to lead the Times to its first Pulitzer Prize for local news in over 20 years when he managed the coverage of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. The Times was also recognized for its coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, which Boyd lead only six days after being promoted to managing editor. Boyd said the award he is most proud of is the Pulitzer Prize the Times won in 2001 for its series, “How Race is Lived in America.” The 52-year-old Boyd promised to spend the rest of his career making sure that we all learn and grow from the Blair scandal. “And yes,” Boyd reminded the audience, “I do have a few great years left in journalism.” In trying to assess the Blair case, Boyd said that the problem wasn’t that Blair was erratic, lazy or sloppy. It was much deeper than that. “If we had known how deeply troubled Jayson Blair was,” Boyd said, “he would not have been writing for the New York Times.” Boyd did accept partial responsibility for Blair’s misdeeds, because, as he said, “At the end of the day, I am the second-highest ranking name on the masthead and the person directly responsible for the daily gathering of news.” He will not, however, admit that he looked the other way because Blair is black. “He received substantial management attention and correction by people much closer to his day-to-day work than I.” Boyd said that he had knowledge of some of Blair’s faults, but said Blair seemed to be a very promising reporter and Times managers expected him to improve. “Much of his work was not only acceptable, but very good,” Boyd said. “He wrote 140-plus articles in five months with only one correction.” When asked during a question and answer session which media-perpetuated "myth" upset him the most, Boyd referred to a Newsweek article that said that he was a mentor to Blair. “That was the only thing I heard that made me call the reporter.” Boyd contended that nothing that has happened has diminished his passion for his profession. “It’s not about looking out for journalists,” he says, “but looking out for journalism.” NABJ Convention Online Staff Writer Jeff Roulston can be reached at jeffr21@hotmail.com |
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