The New York Times comes (sorta) clean on l'affaire Margaret Jones

Fascinatinger and fascinatinger. Motoko Rich updates her story from yesterday as to how Peggy Seltzer, Valley Girl, became Margaret Jones, L.A. gangbanger and recipient of a six-figure advance for her memoirs. The bullet points:

Geoffrey Kloske, publisher of Riverhead Books, the unit of Penguin Group USA that released the book, by Margaret Seltzer, under a pseudonym, Margaret B. Jones, said on Tuesday that there was nothing else that he or Sarah McGrath, the book’s editor, could have done to prevent the author from lying....

Ms. Seltzer told her editor and her publisher that she wanted to use the pseudonym because it was the name she was known by in the gang world and because she was trying to reconnect with her birth mother and felt that using her real name would complicate this effort. But she lied to them and in the book about most of the basic elements of her identity, claiming that she was part American Indian and that she had moved from foster home to foster home as a child. In fact, as she admitted on Monday, she grew up with her biological family in the prosperous Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles, and graduated from a private Episcopal day school.

Ms. McGrath, who never met Ms. Seltzer during three years spent editing the book, said Ms. Seltzer, who lives in Eugene, Ore., had provided what she said were photographs of her foster siblings, a letter from a gang leader corroborating her story and had introduced her agent, Faye Bender, to a person who claimed to be a foster sister.

Ms. McGrath said she also trusted Ms. Seltzer because she had come through “a respected literary agent” who had in turn been referred to the author by a writer whom Ms. Bender had worked with previously.

Despite editing the book in the aftermath of the scandal surrounding James Frey, author of a best-selling memoir, A Million Little Pieces, who admitted making up or exaggerating details in his account of drug addiction and recovery, Ms. McGrath said she did not independently check parts of Ms. Seltzer’s story or perform any kind of background check. She said she relied on Ms. Seltzer to tell the truth.

Mimi Read, the Times freelancer who produced a glowing, entirely credulous profile of Seltzer, also has some 'splainin' to do, and 'splainin' she does. She checked a few facts, but:

Ms. Read said she wished she had been more skeptical and done further fact-checking. “Of course I wish I could do it differently,” she said. “I think a lot of other people were fooled before me.”

Tom de Kay, editor of the House & Home section, said he asked Ms. Read to track down other people from Ms. Seltzer’s past to corroborate her story. Because Ms. Seltzer told Ms. Read that her foster siblings were dead, in prison or no longer in touch, it was difficult for Ms. Read to find people to interview.

One thing not 'splained in The New York Times is the fact that Sarah McGrath is the daughter of Charles "Chip" McGrath, the former editor of the New York Times Book Review. (New York magazine goes into it here.) But that's less damning than some would make it out to be; there are about three degrees of separation between anyone in the New York publishing world, and Jones and her book were profiled and reviewed in other heavy-duty media outlets. It would've been a surprise had the Times not given it big play.

Still, in terms of full disclosure and coming completely clean -- would a mention of the McGrath connection hurt?

Looks that way.

Comments

[Jil]

"that there was nothing else that he or Sarah McGrath, the book’s editor, could have done to prevent the author from lying...."

Hang on while I lift my jaw off the keyboard. I don't think I've ever read a better excuse.

[Ranger Bob]

For god's sake. Haven't these people learned yet that the phrase, "I'm part Native American" should trigger a full FBI background check?

"Little Tree?" anyone? "Nasdiij?" Ward Freakin' Churchill?

You want to see a look of contempt, you try telling my red neighbors, "I've got some Indian blood myself." They've heard that one before. Often.

It's just incomprehensible to me how easily Seltzer passed off this tired old scam.

[kate]

I'm wondering just how many letters of recommendation from GANGBANGERS Sarah has ever seen?