'NY Times' suspends another journalist

Standards of journalism were again under the microscope at The New York Times yesterday after reports that a Pulitzer prize-winning member of its national staff had been suspended pending an investigation into a feature he wrote on Florida oystermen nearly a year ago.

The latest storm surrounds Richard Bragg, who covers the south-eastern United States for the Times and lives in New Orleans. The Columbia Journalism Review said that he had been suspended for two weeks with pay, because of concerns that his article relied on information provided by a freelance.

There was no comment yesterday, from Mr Bragg or the newspaper. But the latest revelation points to further turmoil at the Times, which has still not recovered from its acknowledgement two weeks ago that one of its younger reporters, Jayson Blair, had been exposed for fraudulently filing stories over five months until April. Mr Blair, 27, resigned on 1 May.

As the newspaper laid bare its mistakes in the Blair saga, it invited readers to come forward with any other concerns they had about its reporters. Somebody apparently responded by raising an alarm on the piece by Mr Bragg about threats to the livelihood of oystermen on the Florida Gulf Coast.

In an editor's note on Friday, the newspaper acknowledged that the bulk of the reporting for the piece from Apalachicola, Florida, had been done by a freelance named Wes Yoder, though Mr Bragg had briefly visited the town. The article, it said, "should have carried Mr Yoder's byline with Mr Bragg's".

Any sins by Mr Bragg - should any be proved - will surely not approach those of Mr Blair, who has boasted of pulling the wool over the eyes of his former bosses. He frequently lifted material from other newspapers, invented quotes, fabricated interviews and even pretended to be outside the city reporting when he was at his home in Brooklyn.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that Mr Blair, who was recently in hospital being treated for cocaine dependency, is trying to sell a book on his experiences to be called Burning Down My Master's House. His proposal is described as a furious diatribe against the newspaper, which he calls "my tormentor, my other drug, my slavemaster".

Mr Blair said he was angry at suggestions he had been allowed to get away with his wrongdoings because he was black and that affirmative action led to his over-promotion.