Rick Bragg, who worked at the LAT for about a month before jumping to the New York Times, has been suspended by the NYT in the Jayson Blair aftermath. There have always been whispers about Bragg's reporting style, as Seth Mnookin of Newsweek surfaces. Bragg's brief local career was noteworthy only for the way it ended. Hired with assurances he would be a star writer for the LAT Sunday magazine, he seethed when given lowly Metro assignments by a desk editor determined to pop Bragg's swelled ego. Instead, Bragg popped into the Metro editor's office, wrote out a check reimbursing the Times for his moving expenses, and left for New York. He won the 1996 Pulitzer in feature writing by edging out the LAT's Richard E. Meyer. Slate's Jack Shafer also examines the Bragg record: "Bragg has been an editor-protected scandalette-waiting-to-happen for years."

Blair talks to the NY Observer