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August 21st, 2009
Infamous Plagiarist is Now a Life Coach
Jayson Blair, the former New York Times reporter best known as the prevaricator and plagiarist who got the paper’s two top editors fired, <span style="font-weight: bold">is now being revered </span>as someone who helps people get their lives on track. That’s right, Blair is working as a certified life coach at one of the most respected mental health practices in northern Virginia, The Associated Press reports. Blair relates to patients “just beautifully,” says psychologist Michael Oberschneider, who hired the 33-year-old disgraced journalist.
The Times, perhaps the world’s most respected newspaper, called Blair’s brief tenure six years ago a low point in its 160-year history. An intern turned national reporter, Blair misled readers and his colleagues at the paper with bogus dispatches purportedly from Maryland, Texas and other states, when he was actually right at home in New York.
As the Times reported in 2003, “He fabricated comments. He concocted scenes. He lifted material from other newspapers and wire services. He selected details from photographs to create the impression he had been somewhere or seen someone, when he had not. And he used these techniques to write falsely about emotionally charged moments in recent history, from the deadly sniper attacks in suburban Washington to the anguish of families grieving for loved ones killed in Iraq.”
<span style="font-weight: bold">Speaking to AP this week, Blair acknowledged that some people find it hard to believe that he is actually a life coach.</span> But then, AP writes, “he says, they think about his life experiences and what he’s been through, and they say, ‘Wait a minute. It does make sense,’” realizing that his empathy for his clients is his biggest asset.