I don’t know how to react to the Jayson Blair story. Part of me says that’s what you get for not fact-checking stories, and part of me says that’s what readers get for believing everything they read just because it’s in The New York Times. Part of me wonders how hard it can possibly be to get a job there. Part of me is disgusted with the difficulty people seem to have in firing poor performers (Blair was warned about his work several times and placed on notice that his job was on the line), though nothing legally prevents it. But the newest part of me is resigned to accept that crime does indeed pay. If I was Blair, I’d totally write the book. You’d have to be a sap to believe anything in it, of course, but that’s for the publisher to work out.