Jayson Blair, a former New York Times reporter whose career ended in 2003 after it was discovered that he had fictionalized material for stories, will speak Friday at the Carnegie Center in Phoenix.
The sixth annual Celebration of African American Authors, which is sponsoring Blair's visit, started as a way to bring black authors to the Valley. The area is generally overlooked by publishers for book tours because of the Valley's relatively small black population, said Cynthia Landrum, project director for the month-long event.
Blair was diagnosed with manic-depressive disorder within a year of leaving the Times. In 2004, he published "Burning Down My Master's House," a book that describes the events that led to the end of his career as a journalist.
Blair will speak Friday at noon at the Carnegie Center, 1101 W. Washington St., and again Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Main Library in Glendale, 5959 W. Brown St.
Blair was invited to participate in the event, which coincides with Black History Month, because it strives to highlight a variety of authors, Landrum said.
"One of the things I thought was interesting was that Jayson Blair is a controversial figure," she said.
People want to know what internal mechanisms failed for Blair that would have governed the actions of most other people, and he makes some interesting points about mental health and ethics, Landrum said.
"He doesn't excuse himself, and I don't think the public does either," she said.
Landrum said she has tried to gauge the public's reaction to this weekend's visit, and she believes people are largely curious about what happened from Blair's perspective.
Steve Doig, interim director of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said Blair does not have anything to offer besides a prime example of talent that has been misapplied and gone "way wrong."
"[As a journalist] it certainly offends me that he's out trying to make money off the wide-scale misery he caused in the profession," Doig said.
"I personally think there is a large number of African-American authors who would love to get the exposure to a wide audience and almost certainly deserve it more," Doig said.
Katie Greisiger, a public relations senior, said students should be aware that people in the profession could abuse the system.
"Once someone is known for lying, how can you believe anything they say?" she said.
"I'm not saying he doesn't deserve the time [to speak]," Greisiger said. "Maybe they're providing him a chance to turn around his bad reputation."
Reach the reporter at elias.arnold@asu.edu.
