Grow up, already

What is with all the hand-wringing about Jayson Blair's book, "Burning Down My Masters' House: My Life at The New York Times"? Do we review it? Do we ignore it?

Enough! If you work for a newspaper, you cover the news. And if this is a book that is getting a lot of attention, that's making news, you cover it. You review it. Period.

It doesn't matter if the author made your newspaper or profession look bad. There are hundreds of corporate scandals that newspapers devote ink to. There should be no double standard now that the scandal is in our back yard.

Can we embarrassed about what Blair accomplished? Absolutely. Do we have a right to hide behind pious indignation, to ignore the book to reserve space and "devote it to something worthwhile rather than make a rich star out of Blair"? Absolutely not.

There should be no question here.

Newspapers Throw the Book at Jayson Blair [Hartford Courant]
Keller: It "does not merit much attention" [Baltimore Sun]
Keller: 'We May Review Blair Book' [Editor & Publisher]