A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at the New York Times Ratings & Reviews
Shadow and Act Shadow and Act Staff
By the end of the documentary, Grant has laid out all the pieces in an engaging, comprehensive way, neither absolving or sympathizing with Blair nor seeking to disregard the culpability of others... rec.arts.movies.reviews Louis Proyect
The real scandal at the NYT is not Jayson Blair's plagiarism but the paper of record's incestuous relationship to the military-industrial complex. Nonfics (Substack) Dan Schindel
A frustrating waste of a good opportunity. RogerEbert.com Matt Zoller Seitz
"A Fragile Trust" lays it all out, sometimes in manipulative ways, but always with clarity, so that you understand what happened and how it happened. Film-Forward.com Nora Lee Mandel
Looking closely at journalism today makes it look like messy sausage making, similar to the legislative process the press criticizes. . . fostering an enabling environment. New York Times Ben Kenigsberg
Lightness of touch is missing from the film, which features animated graphics and an ominous score. New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
Director Samantha Grant chronicles an ignominious but fascinating chapter in modern journalism in this solid doc. On the most basic level, [Grant] tells a clear and thorough story about the most damaging plagiarism scandal in the history of America's flagship newspaper, and about the ambiguous and troubled individual who sparked it. New York Post Farran Smith Nehme
It's a swift, vivid movie, but 10 years past the scandal, not much is new. The Dissolve Mike D'Angelo
A Fragile Trust [...] does little more than rehash the story [of reporter Jayson Blair] for those who missed it the first time around, without ever finding much of a bigger picture. Village Voice Alan Scherstuhl
While mostly well made, and certain to serve as a handy prcis for the J-school set, A Fragile Trust is more a soiling reminder than a revelation for anyone already familiar with Blair's case. Compuserve Harvey S. Karten
Plagiarist Jayson Blair takes up too much of the doc's time given his unflattering, close-up appearance and compulsive use of "um" and "you know."
