Former New York Times managing editor Gerald Boyd, who was forced to resign in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal, died of lung cancer yesterday at the age of 56. Though his career pre-Blair was storied — he was the youngest journalist ever chosen for a prestigious Nieman fellowship, and a series he worked on as the Times's first black city editor won a Pulitzer — his race and his position linked him inextricably in people's minds to Blair's dramatic plagiarism flameout. Especially in the minds of CNN.com's copyeditors, apparently.
Is it bad that this mistake makes us wish Jayson Blair was dead, instead? We're going to go with 'no.'

Ex New York Times Managing Editor Dies [CNN]

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