In what it called a low point in its 152-year history, the New York Times admitted yesterday that one of its reporters had fabricated all or part of 36 stories in the past six months, and apologised to its readers.
The extent of the deception was laid out in excruciating detail over four pages in the newspaper's Sunday editions, under the heading "Correcting the Record".
It showed that the reporter, Jayson Blair (27), filed dispatches that purported to be from Maryland, Texas and other states while he was still in New York, and that he plagiarised other reporters' copy and invented details and interviews.
One of the most blatant examples was the reaction of the family of Pte Jessica Lynch of Palestine, West Virginia, after her capture in Iraq.
In an article on March 27th, Blair wrote that Pte Lynch's father, Mr Gregory Lynch, "choked up as he stood on his porch overlooking the tobacco fields and cattle pastures". There are no tobacco fields or pastures visible from the house and the family later said Blair never visited or talked to them.
The deception came to light on April 29th, after the San Antonio Express-News accused the paper of plagiarism in Blair's "on-the-scene" account of the anguish of a missing soldier's mother in Los Fresnos, Texas.
The reporter did not go there and apparently added graphic detail taken from the picture archives, said the Times, which is regarded as the most influential newspaper in the United States.
"It's a huge black eye," said Mr Arthur Sulzberger, chairman of the New York Times.
In a statement the newspaper said of Blair: "He fabricated comments. He concocted scenes. He lifted material from other newspapers and wire services. He selected details from photographs to create the impression he had been somewhere or seen someone, when he had not.
"And he used these techniques to write falsely about emotionally charged moments in recent history, from the deadly sniper attacks in suburban Washington to the anguish of families grieving for loved ones killed in Iraq."
The newspaper said that checks into 600 earlier stories written by Blair had found other apparent fabrications, and that the inquiry continued.
It admitted that various editors and reporters had expressed misgivings about Blair, and that he was given major assignments even after a warning to newsroom administrators in April 2002 from metropolitan editor Jonathan Landman: "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now."