Who hired Jayson Blair? Who promoted him? Who protected him? And why? Like the purloined letter, the answer is right in front of us. Jayson Blair is black. The New York Times worships at the altar of "diversity." So, Times editors cut him all the slack he needed. And Jayson Blair knew how to snooker "progressives."

Had Jayson Blair been a white graduate of Bob Jones, he would not have lasted past his second correction. Indeed, he would never have been hired. But he was, because Jayson Blair was exactly the right color for The New York Times' guilty conscience.

The Jayson Blair scandal at The New York Times is a case of the chickens of affirmative action coming home to roost.

Blair, however, will likely become the Lt. Calley of this atrocity. For higher-ups at the Times are already covering up for one another. Though Gerald Boyd, an African-American editor, promoted Blair, despite his problems, publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is already exonerating his editors: "The person who did this is Jayson Blair. ... Let's not begin to demonize our executives."

Raines himself, a caricature of the guilt-ridden liberal Southerner, was asked by NPR if Blair's race had anything to do with his remarkable rise. "No," said Raines, "I do not see it as illustrating that point." He may be the only one who doesn't.

Raines and his co-editors have made the voice of the American establishment an object of mockery and ridicule in Middle America.

Somewhere, today, Spiro Agnew is smiling.