A recent tragic trifecta of stupidity -- newsroom scandals at The New York Times and Salt Lake Tribune and the publication of serial prevaricator Stephen Glass¹ novel -- could not have come at a worse time for American journalism.

It is bad enough that we are under attack by a White House and Justice Department that want to rewrite the Constitution. It's bad enough that we are dismissed by a public who rate us somewhere between ambulance chasers and used car salesmen.

But the recent embarrassing revelations of ethical lapses, and the sickening celebration of one disgraced reporter's pathological conniving, come at a time when the media's vital role in democracy is about to be further eroded, threatening democracy itself.

This week, the Federal Communication Commission proposed severe reductions on the control of media ownership -- meaning that, if these proposals first reported by the AP are passed next month, the already paltry pool of media owners will be further reduced.

Democracy requires a vigorous, independent press. Fewer owners mean less competition, less muckraking, fewer divergent opinions and a greatly weakened press. Which is why the stories of Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass and the two imbeciles from Salt Lake City who sold dirt to the tabloids are so troublesome.

Its lengthy, honest and touching mea culpa aside, there is no way that The New York Times should have allowed Jayson Blair to be in the position of lying to its readers by inventing interviews and cribbing from other newspapers.

Blair, a 27-year-old clearly in way over his head, bears full responsibility for his reprehensible behavior. No one forced him to pretend to conduct interviews, falsify his whereabouts to colleagues and rip off the competition. But the Times should have canned him long before he had a chance to fabricate facts of some of the biggest stories of our time.

By the Gray Lady's own admission in Sunday's edition, Blair raised too many red flags during his five years in Times Square to have been allowed anywhere near the D.C. sniper story, or the families of those affected by the war in Iraq: His mistakes became so routine, his behavior so unprofessional, that by April 2002, Jonathan Landman, the metropolitan editor, dashed off a two-sentence message to newsroom administrators that read: ¹We have to stop Jayson from working for the Times. Right now.'

That he was a young black reporter in an age when newspapers are struggling with diversity issues probably played a role. Howell Raines' visceral need for scoops, which helped override any internal Times' concerns and allowed Blair to help the national desk, certainly played a role. Blair got scoops on the sniper story all right. But, like much of his other work, those were made up too, according to the Times and the Washington City Paper. And, more than any factor other than Blair himself, an internal communications breakdown at the Times definitely contributed to Blair's run of mayhem.

Perhaps most astonishing is that, despite all the red flags, Blair's Times editors didn't ask him to divulge his sources -- something routinely required at many papers, large and small, including this one.

Any such lessons, however, will be lost on would-be fictionists by whatever success Stephen Glass might find with his novel, The Fabulist, which went on sale this week.

The book is a novel of an ignominious fall, the rise to infamy, and life after both, according to an e-mail from Glass to his pals as reported by Jim Romenesko's Media News website (www.poynter.org). The e-mail was a pitch to friends to buy his book.

What is sickening about this is that Glass, who made up stories that appeared in a number of magazines, will almost certainly profit from his transgressions. And the likelihood is high that Jayson Blair, like Glass, will eventually pull a me-so-sorry and weasel his way into a large-dollar book and/or movie deal.

The same will probably happen to Kevin Cantera and Michael Vigh -- two Salt Lake Tribune reporters who were recently fired for their misconduct.

Cantera and Vigh not only sold out their own paper by accepting $10,000 apiece to provide inside information about the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping to The National Enquirer -- but they, like Blair and Glass, made up information, in this case about the Smarts supposedly being involved in a gay sex ring.

As an editor, I share the pain felt by those who worked with Blair and Glass and Cantera and Vigh.

A few years ago, a CP freelancer invented an interview with actor John Leguizamo. After determining the facts, I immediately forbade the writer from working here again. Then I contacted the local media, because this was a story and I wanted the public to know we do not condone fabrication or lying, nor do we try to duck or deny when such fabrication is uncovered.

Editors must trust reporters. But when that trust is broken, we must act quickly, decisively and honestly because trust is all we really have.

This is especially important now, when the FCC is about to give the public an even bigger reason not to trust us.