Jeremy Lott has an article about Jayson Blair in the American Spectator Online:

JAYSON BLAIR GREW UP IN FAIRFAX COUNTY, Virginia, in a much more upscale neighborhood than this Fairfax-based reviewer can afford. His father was a bigshot at the Smithsonian and his mother a local schoolteacher. The family was heavily involved in a local church.

This is something I hadn't noticed, although it was mentioned during the scandal; when Blair was given this job, he had two factors going for him, his privileged background, and his race. Of course, somewhere, as I pointed out, there's some would-be Jimmy Olson somewhere, who didn't have either of these advantages.