Wednesday, May 28, 2003

I am very concerned with the tone of Mr. John Leo's opinion columns concerning the fraudulent reporting by former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair in the May 14 and May 21 editions of The Citizen.

Mr. Leo repeatedly blames diversity for the creation of Mr. Blair. My biggest concern is his portrayal of Mr. Blair as the poster child of diversity gone wild.

While researching this response, I reviewed an editorial by George Curry of the Atlanta Voice. Mr. Curry pointed out that Clifford Irving created a false biography of Howard Hughes, Joe McGinnis committed plagiarism in his book, "The Last Brother," Mike Barnicle of the Boston Globe, and Stephen Glass of the New Republic to name a few, all had questionable writing activities.

I point out these instances where white reporters suffered lapses in professionalism to show that no one condemns their race for their actions, nor should they. Similarly, Mr. Blair's actions need to be regarded as those of an individual failure only.

Howard Arden

Senoia