‘He was prone to squander second chances’?: Second chances? How about twenty chances or scores of chances or hundreds of chances. ... No major bombshells in the Globe’s exhaustive story this morning on Jayson Blair’s tenure at the newspaper. I.e. The Globe dodged a bullet -- and it knows it. ... Mildly interesting factoid from the story: “At some point a recruiting manager at The New York Times called to ask the Globe about Blair's work. Louisa Williams told her about Blair's evaluation and some of the behavioral issues that had surfaced. ‘I remember hearing he had been hired and hearing that he had not graduated from college and being very surprised,’ says Williams.” So the Globe knew he hadn’t graduated, but the Times didn’t? ... Love the lurid tales from Blair’s fellow interns. Of course, intern cat-fights -- like student-council debates over the peace process in the Middle East -- can be easily dismissed, but, in retrospect, the interns were arguably more cognizant of the depth of Jayson’s deceit than editors. ...

Bottom line: Though affirmative action obviously courses through this story, I still think it has more to do with the beguiling nature of youth and the ‘lust to shine or rule,’ as W.B. Yeats once put it. The Globe handled it as well as possible under the insane circumstances. .... Jayson ‘The Slasher’ Blair on his movie and book deals: “Writing about this is inevitable because it's part of my therapy.” ... Jayson, the 24-hour, toll-free number for McLean Hospital is: 1-800-333-0338.

Update -- Dan Kennedy has more on the Jayson Blair scandal -- and a public-service rogues gallery of journalism scandals past.  ¶ 9:19 AM