Reporter accused of borrowing material resigns

NEW YORK -- A New York Times reporter resigned Thursday after he was accused of appropriating without attribution material from another newspaper's story about a Texas woman whose son was killed in combat in Iraq, the Times said.

A Times review of the story by Jayson Blair has "been unable to determine what original reporting he did to produce it," Times Executive Editor Howell Raines said in a statement Thursday night.

The review began after San Antonio Express-News Editor Robert Rivard sent an e-mail Tuesday to Times editors asking them to acknowledge publicly that the newspaper wrongfully appropriated reporter Macarena Hernandez's work.

"The Times apologizes to its readers for a grave breach of its journalistic standards," Raines said. "We will also apologize to the family of the soldier ... for heightening their pain in a time of mourning."

Efforts to reach Blair for comment Thursday were unsuccessful. A woman who answered the telephone at a Brooklyn address listed as belonging to Jayson Blair said it was a wrong number, as did a woman at a Manhattan address.

At the Express-News, Rivard said the paper was "satisfied The New York Times editors addressed the matter in a timely way, and we appreciate the public acknowledgment of the work of our reporter and this newspaper that was inappropriately presented by the Times reporter as his own work."

'Put this matter behind us'

"It will be good to put this matter behind us," Rivard said.

An April 26 story by Blair detailed Juanita Anguiano's monthlong wait for news about the fate of her son, Army Sgt. Edward Anguiano, who was reported missing in late March. He was confirmed dead two days after the story ran.

Blair started his story by writing, "Juanita Anguiano points proudly to the pinstriped couches, the tennis bracelet in its red case and the Martha Stewart furniture out on the patio. She proudly points up to the ceiling fan, the lamp for Mother's Day, the entertainment center that arrived last Christmas and all the other gifts from her only son, Edward, a 24-year-old Army mechanic."

The Express-News story by Hernandez, published April 18, contained a similar passage: "So the single mother, a teacher's aide, points to the ceiling fan he installed in her small living room. She points to the pinstriped couches, the tennis bracelet still in its red velvet case and the Martha Stewart patio furniture, all gifts from her first born and only son."

Raines said the Times continues to investigate Blair's reporting about the Texas family and is reviewing other work he did for the newspaper.

"We will do what is necessary to be sure the record is kept straight," Raines said.

The story by Blair, who interned at the Times with Hernandez in 1998, contained other wording very close to that in the Express-News account.

Hernandez wrote of Juanita Anguiano: "She said she has moments when she can picture her son in some Iraqi village, like the ones she has seen on TV, surrounded by a herd of animals and the Iraqis he has befriended."

Blair's story contained this passage: "At moments, Ms. Anguiano says, she can picture her son in an Iraqi village, like the ones she has seen on television, surrounded by animals and the Iraqi people he has befriended."