While I agree with that last sentence I struggle with the comment: “It doesn’t really matter how you get it.” Do you really believe that? You mention you were compared to the Drudge Report because you, like him, were using others work and then getting credit for it. How did you respond then to that accusation? On reflection do you think you did anything inappropriate?
Jason: When I wrote this book, I wrote it from a particular point of view that I had at a particular point of time and in doing so I dug deep into my soul so I could relive and retell my story accurately in that frame of mind. So, in this particular section that you point out, yes, that is what I believed at the time and how I justified doing what I was doing.
I was not thinking straight and I knew what I was doing was wrong but I rationalized it and that’s why I wrote in the present tense, for that very reason. Do I believe that rationalization to be true today? Absolutely not. And I don’t practice that type of journalism today.
Scott: What do you think of what happened to Jayson Blair, the disgraced reporter for The New York Times? You are probably tired of any comparisons – and the racial issue is missing in your case – but both of you had drug problems and journalism controversies. Do you think he got a raw deal or was his dismissal and pummeling by other journalists appropriate?
Jason: Jayson Blair was a reporter who invented stories out of whole cloth, failed to leave his apartment to report the stories he was supposed to cover and hid behind a mental disorder to explain his behavior. I have never fabricated a story, have never been accused by my editors of doing such a thing and have never been afflicted by a case of extreme laziness. I am the anti-Jayson Blair. I went out of my way to report the truth. And I do not blame drugs or my mental state for my behavior.
Scott: Have you been watching the coverage of the Libby trial, which has shown how much sucking up some reporters do. Do you find that disturbing or just confirmation of your beliefs about the major media?
Jason: The Libby trial, in my opinion, is an indictment of the media and what I have seen has confirmed everything I wrote about the mainstream media. I am glad the media has been on trial during these proceedings. They have done, and continue to do, a terrible job reporting the news.
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