By: Joe Strupp It had to happen. The tragedy of Jayson Blair, which scandalized
The New York Times and caused the entire newspaper industry to rethink its rules about plagiarism and fact checking, is getting the Hollywood treatment. The only surprise is that it took this long.
The Showtime production, labeled a "dark comedy" in a press release and tentatively titled "The Jayson Blair Project," is being written by Jon Maas, who served as writer/producer of the Showtime film
The Last Debate, which dealt with the power of the media and journalism ethics, according to Robert Greenblatt, president of entertainment for Showtime Networks Inc. Maas will also serve as executive producer, Greenblatt said.
The production is based in part on articles by former
Newsweek media reporter Seth Mnookin, who recently left the magazine to write a book about
The New York Times for Random House. The film will explore how Jayson Blair, once considered to be a rising star in the field of journalism, brought shame upon himself and simultaneously the
Times, producers said.
"We are very excited about this project," Greenblatt said in a statement. "Most films based on the world of journalism focus on how a reporter gets his story against amazing odds or even how they put their lives in peril. This one is truly different. This film will explore what made Jayson Blair so self-destructive and how his actions single-handedly destroyed his journalism career."
Maas stated, "The second I read about Jayson, all I could think of was what was going on with Jayson that caused him to be a serial fabricator? Why would anyone who had achieved what he had at such a young age -- becoming a reporter for the finest newspaper in the country -- do what he did? What on earth possessed him to think he could get away with it? And why did it take so long for the
Times to become aware of it?"
No word yet on who will star in the film or when it will air.
A
Times investigation found fraud, plagiarism, and inaccuracies in three dozen articles Blair wrote between October 2002 and April 2003. The
Times detailed the fraud over four full pages in its May 11 edition.
On June 5, Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd resigned in the aftermath of the Blair scandal.
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