The Blair Witch Hunt Project

There are few certainties in life... but surely one of them is that Little Mickey Kaus would use the story Jayson Blair, former reporter for the New York Times to bash affirmative action. Mick's analysis is as follows: He doesn't know if affirmative action had anything to do with Blair's alleged plagiarism, but people will use the Blair story to demagogue against affirmative action even if they can't prove a connection, therefore, affirmative action is bad. Oh, and it's the Times' fault -- for "apparently" practicing affirmative action -- that "other African-American reporters ... now have to unfairly labor under the sneaking suspicion that they are potential Blairs." Read Kaus for yourself; his comment makes no sense.

I wonder if Mick will opine with such eloquence and passion on the story Salt Lake Tribune reporters Michael Vigh and Kevin Cantera, who allegedly admitted to fabricating tales about the family of Elizabeth Smart. Don't count on it, unless there's an anti-affirmative action angle.

In the end, there are three much simpler explanations for Blair's alleged misconduct, ones you'll never read in Kausfiles because they don't fit Mick's worldview:

(1) Mr. Blair was trying to get a job at the New Republic;

(2) Mr. Blair thought he was still working at the Boston Globe, and thought he would only get a slap on the wrist; or

(3) Mr. Blair really wanted to become friends with Little Mick, and thought stealing others' work was the easiest way to acheive that result.

Now, one could superficially examine the individuals involved in those three examples -- either individually or collectively -- and make some assumptions to manufacture a particular theory about what facilitated their misconduct. But that would be wrong. For same reason Kaus is wrong.