We've known all along we shouldn't believe everything we read in the newspapers, but this is getting ridiculous. First came the double blow to the credibility of the New York Times -- America's oft-proclaimed "paper of record" -- by disgraced reporters Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg.
Mr. Blair resigned last month after it was revealed that he had both plagiarized and invented key elements of numerous stories. Mr. Bragg left four weeks later after admitting that a story published over his byline had largely been developed by an uncredited freelancer.
It is understood that the problems that set Mr. Blair on his fraud spree were personal rather than cultural, i.e., the troubles of an individual rather than problems endemic to his race, as some have suggested (Mr. Blair is African American), or to the institution he worked for. Mr. Bragg's colleagues at the Times also rejected his claim that his basically fraudulent use of freelancers was routine practice at the newspaper.