Voice of America, May 11, 2003

One of the most influential newspapers in the United States, The New York Times, says it has uncovered frequent acts of journalistic fraud by one of its reporters.

The Times says the fraud, committed by 27-year-old Jayson Blair, represent "a profound betrayal of trust and a low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper."

Mr. Blair resigned from the paper on May 1.

In a front page article, the newspaper said Mr. Blair invented quotes, lied about his whereabouts and copied information from other newspaper reports in articles about national news events.

The Times says 36 of the 73 articles Mr. Blair wrote between last October and his resignation contained problems. These stories included reports about last year's sniper attacks in the Washington area and the anguish of families grieving for loved ones killed in Iraq.

The New York Times says it is continuing to investigate the truthfulness and accuracy of the hundreds of articles Mr. Blair wrote over his four year career at the newspaper.

The paper says it did not discover the problems earlier because its senior editors failed to communicate, subjects in Mr. Blair's articles seldom complained about errors, and Mr. Blair was so good at covering his tracks. The report says Mr. Blair used his cell phone and laptop computer to blur his true location and steal material from other newspapers.