Jayson Blair

Jayson Thomas Blair (born March 23, 1976) is an American former journalist who worked for The New York Times. He resigned from the newspaper in May 2003 after fabrication and plagiarism were discovered in his stories. Blair published a memoir, Burning Down My Masters' House (2004), where he discussed his career, his bipolar disorder diagnosis, and his perspective on race relations at the newspaper. After his resignation, Blair founded a support group for individuals with bipolar disorder and became a life coach. Born in Columbia, Maryland, Blair's parents were a federal executive and a schoolteacher. During his time at the University of Maryland, College Park, he served as the second African-American editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Diamondback.