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Brian Egeston
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 11:11 pm: | 
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Entertainment: Jayson Blair signs book deal with L.A. publisher
2003/09/10 09:19 PM EDT
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer
NEW YORK (September 10, 2003 2:50 p.m. EDT) - Jayson Blair, the former New York Times reporter who resigned amid accusations of fraud and plagiarism, has a book deal with New Millennium Press, a Los Angeles-based publisher with its own controversial past.
The book, "Burning Down My Master's House," is scheduled to come out in March 2004, with a first printing of more than 200,000, New Millennium co-president Michael Viner said Wednesday.
Blair resigned from the paper on May 1 after filing some three dozen phony or plagiarized stories from October 2002 to April 2003. The scandal surrounding the 27-year-old former national correspondent led to the resignations of Times executive editor Howell Raines and managing editor Gerald Boyd.
Blair soon announced he was seeking a book deal, but several New York publishers said they were not interested. Viner said Wednesday he was not concerned about the reliability of Blair's memoir.
"He is very anxious that the book be well vetted, as are we," Viner said.
New Millennium was involved in disputes in 2002 with physicist Stephen Hawking and novelist David Baldacci.
Hawking asked the Federal Trade Commission to stop New Millennium's publication of "The Theory of Everything," which the physicist said would "constitute a fraud on the public" because it simply repackages old material.
The book was published, and a paperback edition released in June, although Hawking's Web site urges readers "not to purchase this book in the belief that Professor Hawking was involved in its creation."
Baldacci, author of such best sellers as "Absolute Power" and "Last Man Standing," complained that his name was featured too prominently on the cover of a New Millennium anthology of mystery stories.
Baldacci's name appeared in large foil letters above the title of the book, the same title as a novella contributed by Baldacci. Granting a rare preliminary injunction, a federal judge in New York ruled that consumers could mistake the anthology for Baldacci's novel, and wrote that New Millennium "was attempting to deceive the public into buying a misrepresented book."
New Millennium and Baldacci later agreed that the cover would be altered and the book released. Baldacci's name appeared below the title, in smaller letters.
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Thumper
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 07:52 am: |
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Hello Brian,
Yeah, I've known that he was looking for a publishing deal for months now. I'm curious to see who's going to buy it, especially since Blair will now forever be used as why Affirmative Action is no good. |
Chris Hayden
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 11:05 am: |
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Brian and Thump:
Who says there are no second acts in life? |
Fool on the Hill
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 03:27 pm: |
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Thumper,
Blair made a great point a while back in the New York Observer. He said he didn't understand why his problems at the Times were proof that blacks don't deserve affirmative action while that white guy at the New Republic (forget the name) has been called an evil genius for fooling the reading public for just about as long. He wanted credit for being a great b-llsh-t artist and I say yes, he deserves it. I mean, he fooled "The Paper of Record." Forget a book, I want the five part miniseries on PBS! I see Larenz Tate as Blair. |
Crystal
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 04:07 pm: |
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I agree with the Fool [that’s funny]. I’ve always seen this as just another instance of a black person being badmouthed for doing the same thing white folks have done - and gotten away with. I don’t think he should have done it but it ain’t news. Same ole double standard. |
Cynique
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 04:16 pm: |
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Too bad Blair didn't have to balls back then to just shrug his shoulders and say, "Yeah, I got busted while playin the ol corporate game." Instead, he fell back on that tired excuse of having a drug problem and personal set-backs. |
Thumper
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 06:16 pm: |
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Hello All,
Chris: "Who says there are no second acts in life?" Not me! Of course Blair has some acts to live. He's still a young man. I'd like to see what he can come up with.
Fool on the Hill: *big smile* Yeah, he can be known as Jayson Blair - the Great Underachiever. Sounds like an impressive title to me. *rolling my eyes" *LOL* Blair may not WANT to be used as an example against Affirmative Action, but what he wants don't matter. He has and he will in the future be used as the poster boy against AA. Now, I would think the question should be, what will he do with his infamy? As Chris said about who said there are no second acts, that is true. Already Blair generates the amount of press other authors would kill for. I've seen other white authors, just as discredit and end up making a killing. Can Blair do it? *eyebrow raised*
Cynique: I guess this is our month for agreements. I'm with you. Why didn't Blair say, Yeah, I messed up. And? *eyebrow raised* So what? Responsibility is becoming as rare as a purple diamond...that is unless you get caught, doing something in a hotel room with a woman that ain't your wife. |
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