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American Morning

Interview With Reporter Macarena Hernandez

Aired May 13, 2003 - 09:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they say that when the story of the "New York Times" is written, there will be a chapter for Jayson Blair. Blair is the young "Times" reporter who resigned after it was discovered that he copied, plagiarized, and invented details of his stories. The "Times" calls it -- quote -- "a profound betrayal of trust and a low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper."
Macarena Hernandez is one of Blair's -- you might say -- alleged sources. He plagiarized some of the work she did for the "San Antonio Express." She also interned with Blair at the "New York Times." Macarena Hernandez joining us from Weslaco, Texas today. Hello, good morning.

MACARENA HERNANDEZ, "SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS": Good morning.

KAGAN: This must have all come as a big shock to you.

HERNANDEZ: Oh, it's been surreal. It's been -- I don't even know what week we're in now, but seems like the story just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

KAGAN: Let's go ahead and show our viewers an example of your work and then some of Jayson Blair's work. So this is you. This something that you wrote not that long ago.

The quote, "the single mother, a teacher's aide, points to the ceiling fan he installed in her small living room. She points to the pinstripe couches, a tennis bracelet still in its red velvet case, and the Martha Stewart patio furniture all gifts from her first born and from her only son."

That is the story that you wrote. This is about a soldier who was fighting in Iraq?

HERNANDEZ: Yes. The last missing one, by the time the "New York Times" wrote the story.

KAGAN: Now here is what appeared in the "New York Times."

"Juanita Anguiano points proudly to pinstripe couches, a tennis bracelet in its red case, and the Martha Stewart furniture on the patio. She proudly points up to the ceiling fan, the lamp for Mother's Day, the entertainment center that arrived last Christmas, and all the other gifts that her only son, Edward -- " I guess it goes on to say gifted her.

And that's from Jayson Blair. Now, as I understand it, it was one of your editors in San Antonio that caught the similarities?

HERNANDEZ: I don't really what happened. The only thing I know that I woke up, I saw the story when it was posted online, the "New York Times," because someone sent me an e-mail saying you should look at this story.

I always get e-mails from people letting me know the stories that are running on the region I cover, whether it is an AP story, "New York Times" story or a local paper, and all I know is that by 1:00 Saturday morning, I already knew that there was something fishy about the "New York Times" story. I didn't -- it was hard to comprehend that I had been plagiarized, and I thought maybe they had just borrowed from the AP and not credited the AP, and the AP had borrowed from the "Express News," but it was when I saw the longer version on the actual "New York Times" Web site that I realized that my work had, indeed, been replicated.

KAGAN: And what did do you from there?

HERNANDEZ: I called people at 2:00 in the morning to ask them if I was insane for thinking that it sounded alike. I was shocked, especially when I saw the byline, Jayson Blair, who was someone I knew.

KAGAN: Yes. Well, that is actually what makes it even more incredible. Now, if you happened -- folks happened to see the "New York Times" on Sunday, they did a huge piece that started on the front page and went many, many pages into their front section, talking about what went wrong, how this reporter was able to get through the system like this for so many years and so many stories. But as you mentioned, this was not only someone you knew, but you interned at the "New York Times."

HERNANDEZ: We were interns together back in the summer of 1998.

KAGAN: And you remember him well?

HERNANDEZ: Oh, yes. It was an internship program with a handful of interns, and four of us were writing, reporting interns, so Jayson Blair and I and as well as the other two interns became, I wouldn't say close friends, but we were -- we worked together. We would ride the subway home together after work. We would go out for drinks after a long day at work. We went to functions sponsored and organized by "New York Times" together.

KAGAN: The paper at this point tries to paint a picture of a young reporter who had a lot of personality conflicts, who was very outgoing, suggested he was more interested in newsroom gossip than actually being a good reporter. What are your memories of the Jayson Blair that you interned with?

HERNANDEZ: I don't think anyone, even people who knew him back then like me and people who worked with him and saw his star rise at the "New York Times" over the last five years could have guessed that it would have been this horrible. I think most of us knew that he was very ambitious. I remember Jayson as this very ambitious guy who probably knew he wanted to do journalism before he could speak, that's the kind of guy that he comes across as.

And you know, that liked to drink hard liquor on the rocks and smoke a lot of cigarettes, and you know, it is just this kind of younger reporter trying to learn the ropes and navigate a newsroom. Yes, he was very friendly, and got to know everyone, but I don't think any of us, even the people who knew him a week before this all happened, or the week before this was all discovered, that he was capable of doing what he did for the last...

KAGAN: Just real quickly, have you received any kind of apology from the "New York Times"?

HERNANDEZ: Personally, I haven't, but my editor has, our newspaper received an (ph) apology. My editor, Robert Rivard, was the one that communicated with the "New York Times" management, and they were very gracious and, like all of us, we just hope to put this episode behind us.

KAGAN: Put it behind. Many good assignments ahead for you, I hope. Macarena Hernandez from San Antonio, thank you so much for joining us -- appreciate it.

HERNANDEZ: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 13, 2003 - 09:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they say that when the story of the "New York Times" is written, there will be a chapter for Jayson Blair. Blair is the young "Times" reporter who resigned after it was discovered that he copied, plagiarized, and invented details of his stories. The "Times" calls it -- quote -- "a profound betrayal of trust and a low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper."
Macarena Hernandez is one of Blair's -- you might say -- alleged sources. He plagiarized some of the work she did for the "San Antonio Express." She also interned with Blair at the "New York Times." Macarena Hernandez joining us from Weslaco, Texas today. Hello, good morning.

MACARENA HERNANDEZ, "SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS": Good morning.

KAGAN: This must have all come as a big shock to you.

HERNANDEZ: Oh, it's been surreal. It's been -- I don't even know what week we're in now, but seems like the story just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

KAGAN: Let's go ahead and show our viewers an example of your work and then some of Jayson Blair's work. So this is you. This something that you wrote not that long ago.

The quote, "the single mother, a teacher's aide, points to the ceiling fan he installed in her small living room. She points to the pinstripe couches, a tennis bracelet still in its red velvet case, and the Martha Stewart patio furniture all gifts from her first born and from her only son."

That is the story that you wrote. This is about a soldier who was fighting in Iraq?

HERNANDEZ: Yes. The last missing one, by the time the "New York Times" wrote the story.

KAGAN: Now here is what appeared in the "New York Times."

"Juanita Anguiano points proudly to pinstripe couches, a tennis bracelet in its red case, and the Martha Stewart furniture on the patio. She proudly points up to the ceiling fan, the lamp for Mother's Day, the entertainment center that arrived last Christmas, and all the other gifts that her only son, Edward -- " I guess it goes on to say gifted her.

And that's from Jayson Blair. Now, as I understand it, it was one of your editors in San Antonio that caught the similarities?

HERNANDEZ: I don't really what happened. The only thing I know that I woke up, I saw the story when it was posted online, the "New York Times," because someone sent me an e-mail saying you should look at this story.

I always get e-mails from people letting me know the stories that are running on the region I cover, whether it is an AP story, "New York Times" story or a local paper, and all I know is that by 1:00 Saturday morning, I already knew that there was something fishy about the "New York Times" story. I didn't -- it was hard to comprehend that I had been plagiarized, and I thought maybe they had just borrowed from the AP and not credited the AP, and the AP had borrowed from the "Express News," but it was when I saw the longer version on the actual "New York Times" Web site that I realized that my work had, indeed, been replicated.

KAGAN: And what did do you from there?

HERNANDEZ: I called people at 2:00 in the morning to ask them if I was insane for thinking that it sounded alike. I was shocked, especially when I saw the byline, Jayson Blair, who was someone I knew.

KAGAN: Yes. Well, that is actually what makes it even more incredible. Now, if you happened -- folks happened to see the "New York Times" on Sunday, they did a huge piece that started on the front page and went many, many pages into their front section, talking about what went wrong, how this reporter was able to get through the system like this for so many years and so many stories. But as you mentioned, this was not only someone you knew, but you interned at the "New York Times."

HERNANDEZ: We were interns together back in the summer of 1998.

KAGAN: And you remember him well?

HERNANDEZ: Oh, yes. It was an internship program with a handful of interns, and four of us were writing, reporting interns, so Jayson Blair and I and as well as the other two interns became, I wouldn't say close friends, but we were -- we worked together. We would ride the subway home together after work. We would go out for drinks after a long day at work. We went to functions sponsored and organized by "New York Times" together.

KAGAN: The paper at this point tries to paint a picture of a young reporter who had a lot of personality conflicts, who was very outgoing, suggested he was more interested in newsroom gossip than actually being a good reporter. What are your memories of the Jayson Blair that you interned with?

HERNANDEZ: I don't think anyone, even people who knew him back then like me and people who worked with him and saw his star rise at the "New York Times" over the last five years could have guessed that it would have been this horrible. I think most of us knew that he was very ambitious. I remember Jayson as this very ambitious guy who probably knew he wanted to do journalism before he could speak, that's the kind of guy that he comes across as.

And you know, that liked to drink hard liquor on the rocks and smoke a lot of cigarettes, and you know, it is just this kind of younger reporter trying to learn the ropes and navigate a newsroom. Yes, he was very friendly, and got to know everyone, but I don't think any of us, even the people who knew him a week before this all happened, or the week before this was all discovered, that he was capable of doing what he did for the last...

KAGAN: Just real quickly, have you received any kind of apology from the "New York Times"?

HERNANDEZ: Personally, I haven't, but my editor has, our newspaper received an (ph) apology. My editor, Robert Rivard, was the one that communicated with the "New York Times" management, and they were very gracious and, like all of us, we just hope to put this episode behind us.

KAGAN: Put it behind. Many good assignments ahead for you, I hope. Macarena Hernandez from San Antonio, thank you so much for joining us -- appreciate it.

HERNANDEZ: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com