"Tripe" -- glorious

I've been trying to stay clear of the Jayson Blair thing, but wow, I can't pass this up.

Here's a review from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of "Burning Down My Masters' House," the psuedo-confessional from admitted plagiarist Blair, who got canned from the New York Times for a variety of journalistic atrocities. The review is excellent because it serves not only as a pretty solid assessment of the text but also a concise summary of the Blair fiasco. But the quotes -- oh, the glorious quotes.

I have never read a book so repugnant that I wished I could confine my review to a simple "I read this tripe so you wouldn't have to."

...

The bottom line: In a single book, Jayson Blair has made Pete Rose seem genuinely remorseful and Johnnie Cochran seem reluctant to play the race card.

I'd felt almost a degree of empathy toward him after reading a very solid Editor & Publisher interview with him, but really, it's not empathy, it's pity, and even that fades as his pride in his con-job come through. There's no repentance in him. When he says he's sorry, you know he's sorry because he got caught, and the book feels like another attempt at perpetuating the scam on another level.

Other links worth reading:

Reading Between the Lines: Crazy Like a Fox
Blair's book cuts him down to size
A familiar-sounding paragraph from the book

Re: registration

A quick query, any/all input eagerly sought.

How do you deal with news sites that require free registration (i.e. New York Times, Washington Post, etc.)? Do you not visit or read them or do you go to other sites with the same information? If you do visit/read them, do you even give them valid information?

"Angel" -- well, it's about time

( Mild to moderate spoilers for the next-to-next-to-final episode ever.... )