Here is the Jayson Blair mea culpa from Sunday’s New York Times. It is a very long story, worth lightly reading for many reasons. But it does seem to me to be overstating the case to say, as the first paragraph does, that this the "low point" in the 152 year history of the newspaper. Unsurprisingly, Andrew Sullivan has a great deal to say on the matter. I would only dispute the emphasis he places on the editor; I think the problem is much more endemic and institutional.