Hey Jayson, Can You I Use You as a Reference?

I'm looking to break into big-time journalism so I thought I'd reach out to my oldest friend. He's hot now, getting all the big assignments from the mainstream publications. So I figure my hookup with him will let all you editors out there know I'm a real pro.

Yeah, that's right. What I'm saying I've got his back. Homies. Tight. Word: Me and Ja Blair like that.

Backstory: Jay and me hungizzled together in DC back when he was here for the Times on that sniper duo thing. In fact, I did most of his writing for him.

Word: I give him major props for his sound news judgement. After all, he was the one that picked me out of the crowd to use--and that's the way. Sampling is all. Folks getting so down on him for that.

Yeah, everything he didn't borrow from someone else is mine. You like his turns of phrase? Mine. You like his color? Mine. That view of the mountains from the porch in Palestine? Mine.

And he was a great manager. Like Rick Bragg, shaping material that a stringer would have just let lay there.

Don't know why everyone is so upset with these guys. They're just bringing to the dailies what they've done at the newsweeklies, and have for decades.

Writer sits in a big building in Manhattan and combines the writing and reporting of others into seamless prose. You would never know the dude had been nowhere near the place the story's at. And hadn't thought a second about the subject until he got the assignment after the big editor's meeting on Tuesday.

Where did I learn all this about the newsweeklies. Why in the years I spent writing at Time Inc. That's right. All that stuff you liked so much was mine, anything with the byline Walter Isaacson.

Newsday.com - Writing After Wrongs Fuels Debate ¶ 6:53 AM