A DER SPIEGEL reporter committed large-scale journalistic fraud over several years. Internal clues and research have provided significant evidence against reporter Claas Relotius, who has since admitted to the falsifications and is no longer employed by DER SPIEGEL. Other media organizations may also have been affected.

Investigation by team of New York Times journalists finds reporter Jayson Blair committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud while covering significant news events in recent months; major findings are these: he filed dispatches that purported to be from Maryland, Texas and other states, when often he was in New York; fabricated comments, concocted scenes and lifted material from other newspapers and wire services; also he selected details from photographs to create impression he had been somewhere or seen someone, when he had not; Times journalists uncover new problems in at least 36 of 73 articles he wrote after he started getting national reporting assignments in Oct 2002; spot checks of more than 600 articles he wrote before Oct 2002 find other apparent fabrications, and that inquiry continues; The Times asks readers to report any additional falsehoods in his work; investigation by Times journalists suggests several reasons why his deceits went undetected for so long: failure of communication among senior editors, few complaints from subjects of his articles and his ingenious ways of covering his tracks; some examples cited; most of all, no one saw his carelessness as sign that he was capable of systematic fraud; article offers detailed look at his career at The Times and at errors that have been uncovered in his articles; he resigned on May 1 when editors confronted him with evidence of his deception; photos (L)

He nearly destroyed this magazine. Sixteen years later, his former best friend finally confronts him.