There's one aspect of this Jayson Blair/New York Times scandal that I'm having trouble understanding.

I do a bit of traveling from time to time for a media organization. I'm not particularly interested in paying for plane tickets, hotel rooms, etc. out of my own pocket when I'm on assignment for my company. So when I travel, I either get an advance, or I put the stuff on my credit card. Then I turn in all of my receipts to the accounting folks here, for which they reimburse me. I think it pretty much works that way everywhere.

My question is, how in the world could this guy be telling his bosses that he's covering a story in, say, Washington D.C., while he's actually at home in Brooklyn? Doesn't anyone at the New York Times ever check a receipt? Did they think he was magnanimously paying for all of his own travel out of his salary? Or were they simply taking his word for it when he failed to turn in any receipts with his expense reports?

If I were one of their stockholders, I'd be very, very concerned. Not just because of the journalistic lapses that this story has uncovered, but because of the business lapses that have come to light. Even when you are required to document your expenses, abuses often surface. I cannot imagine the temptations that must come to these guys with no oversight whatsoever.