A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at the New York Times
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77 MIN / USA
}
DIR: Samantha Grant
The shocking story of Jayson Blair, the most infamous serial plagiarist of our time, and how he unleashed the massive scandal that rocked the New York Times and the entire world of journalism. In 2003, Blair was caught plagiarizing and supplementing his own reporting with fabricated details in dozens of stories published in the Times. The daily operations of the Times newsroom became a public spectacle as every major news outlet picked up the story and ran with it. The fact that Blair is African-American was emphasized again and again as accounts of the ‘Blair Affair’ served up sordid details in a soap-opera style tale of deception, drug abuse, racism, mental illness, hierarchy, white guilt, and power struggles inside the hallowed halls of the New York Times. Through the course of the film, we follow Blair as he slowly unravels in the face of mounting pressures and distractions. Starting with his ‘reporting’ of the plagiarized article that ultimately lead to his undoing, we trace the rise and fall of this fascinating young reporter as he clings to his career at the Times even as he is losing his mind. Featuring exclusive interviews with everyone involved, including former Executive Editor Howell Raines and Blair himself,
A Fragile Trust
is the first film to tell the whole sordid story of the scandal while exploring deeper themes of power, ethics, and responsibility in the mainstream media. |
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Baffle Their Minds with Bullsh*t, Kerry Leigh
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10 MIN / USA
}
DIR: Isabelle Carbonell
At the age of three, Kerry Leigh was passing the hat while her father sang the blues. She dropped out school in 7th grade, and became a full-time traveling street performer. Now 26 years old, Kerry's new act on Frenchman street in New Orleans is renting out her imagination on paper with a typewriter. She's a modern day scribe, an old soul in a young body, and a brilliant writer stuck doing all she's ever known, busking, on the same stage she's ever known, the street.
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