Unfit to print: Jayson Blair and attacks on affirmative action. (Speaking Of Education).(Editorial)

I'm addicted to the printed word so I was as shocked and appalled as the rest of the world when Jayson Blair, the young New York Times reporter, was revealed as an all-out prevaricator. I mean, the young man plagiarized, invented and created stories out of thin air. He did it for a long time and, though people raised questions about him, he was always able to answer their questions. At the end of the day he got caught, raising questions, yet again, about journalistic integrity. And that should be the end of this column and the end of the story, but it's not.

Too many White folks started with Jayson Blair and ended up raising questions about affirmative action. Now, when the eminent historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was busted plagiarizing, no one asked about female historians. When Stephen Glass spun a series of …