Blair Watch Hawaii

Got an e-mail from Kim via Donica pointing out a recent “Talk About Ethics” column by Bob Steele at Poynteronline.

Entitled The Faces in the Picture, it was yet another essay on the Jayson Blair scandal. But this one had an unusual local connection.

The article used as its centerpiece a photo taken years ago at a weeklong Poynter Institute seminar called “Ethics and Leadership for College Editors and News Directors.” At the time, Blair was a junior at the University of Maryland and executive editor of the student newspaper, The Diamondback. Steele used the photo of the students to pose the question, ‘Where are they now?’

It turns out one of Blair’s classmates was former Ka Leo editor Christie Lee Williams, whom I succeeded in 1995. Reports Steele, “Christie Lee Williams from the University of Hawaii is now a copy editor at the Honolulu Advertiser.”

Concluded Steele: “I know some of their stories and I’m heartened by what I learn, for many are serving journalism quite well.”