Being economical with the truth is something politicians are – by their own admittance – rather good at. But are we hacks any better?

We like to think we wield the sword of truth – at least in the regional press – but a scandal currently rocking the American press has given rise to question marks over journalistic integrity.

Could it happen here?… Not with our eagle-eyed newsdeskers checking out our expenses, writes journalist Genevra Jones.

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No member of Her Majesty’s Press could possibly have got away with the acts of journalistic fraud perpetuated by the now notorious New York Times staff reporter Jayson Blair – despite what the pundits may say.

The signs were all there for any newsdesker sharp enough to spot ’em. And it’s difficult to believe they didn’t.

What British hack worth his two per cent pay rise would ever return from a job two streets – never mind half a continent away – without claiming his full whack on expenses – even if it was just a couple of quid for a double skinny latte at the corner caff.

So how come the Yanks didn’t notice that their jet-setting ace reporter managed to send dispatches purporting to come from Maryland, Texas and other states without invoicing them for a brass farthing?

Weren’t the alarm bells ringing? Or are the journos in the land of opportunity paid so well they can afford to pay hotel bills and airfares out of their capacious back pockets?

Mind you, it was this lack of claim sheets that turned out to be the young star’s eventual undoing when an investigation into allegations that he had plagiarised a story written by a Texan journalist revealed he was unable to provide any proof that he had ever travelled to Texas. He resigned last week.

And the New York Times covered itself in sackcloth and ashes.

In an extraordinary act of self-humiliation unseen in the history of the newspaper business, America’s leading broadsheet published a series of articles – 4,000 words long – entitled “Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves a Long Trail of Destruction.”

The articles written by five Times reporters and two researchers laid bare years of deception. Blair, said the paper, had fabricated scoops, invented quotes from people he had never spoken to, described scenes culled from photographs, plagiarised other reporters stories and claimed to be writing from far-flung places – when most of the stories were tapped out on his lap-top from his home in Brooklyn.

The story, which has received saturation coverage across America, was, said the New York Times, a profound betrayal of trust and a low point in the 152-year history of the paper.

Blair, they said, repeatedly violated the cardinal tenet of journalism – which was to tell the truth. “His tools of deceit were a cell phone and a laptop computer,” which allowed him to blur his true whereabouts, the paper said.

During his five-year sojourn at The Times, doubts had been raised about his reporting skills – based mainly on errors in his work.

By April 2002 the metropolitan editor wrote an e-mail reading “We have to stop Jayson from writing for The Times. Right now.”

But his warnings went unheeded. After taking leave Blair returned and joined the national desk – where his talent for fabrication reached new heights before he was caught lying for the last time.

Oliver Burkeman writing in the Guardian said:

“No newspaper, as the Times’ executive editor, Howell Raines, has been quick to point out, could be designed to catch the most determined fraudster intent on abusing the trust that is the basis of journalism. (Nor, incidentally, does the British press have anything to feel smug about here: it is precisely the fact that ethical standards are more rigorous in the US, more than one American reporter argued, that explains why the newspaper had to act as it did, and why the scandal has made so many waves.)”

That’s a poke in the chest with a blunt Biro from a country that produces The National Enquirer.

But then do we have much to boast about – particularly among one or two of our more prominent red tops.

Could it happen here? It’s possible someone could get away with it – as long as he remembered to use the same imaginative flair on his expense sheet as he did on his copy.

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