A reporter resigned after years, in 2003, of deceiving his audience by writing fabricated and false stories for The New York Times. Jayson Blair worked for The New York Times for nearly four years and decided to resign because of "personal problems". He falsely wrote about the emotional experiences of recent events and soldiers dying in Iraq war. He also lied about where a story was taking place. A spot check of more than 600 articles that Blair wrote had fabrications. His technological devices allowed him to lie about his where abouts and what he was doing. Among the journalistic deceit he was also having emotional and personal problems at work that resulted in a serious warning.
Blair used the reputation of The New York Times to control what the public believed. The public Reading the paper trusted him and believed everything he published. Until this incident, The New York Times was known as a very honest and trust worthy source. In just a short time Blair has ruined that and his own reputation. He broke the code of ethics in so many ways. I cannot believe he was not noticed and caught sooner but because he failed to communicate with his senior editors and his clever ways of covering up his tracks, it was only a matter of time until he was suspicious. This article is a good reminder to read very critically and not believe everything you read just because it comes from a "reliable" source.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9403E1DB123FF932A25756C0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
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5 comments:
It is unfortunate to read a story like this. First of all, how did he become a reporter!? And for the NY Times! The first rule in the Code of Ethics is to "seek truth and report it." It really is sad to know that a journalist, with such a crowd, can not be trusted and that there are more than likely more out there just the same. It really does show you, you can't trust everything you read. You should always find more than one source.
I feel really sorry for this reporter. No one wakes up in the morning and wants to ruin their credibility and career. It sounds like he had a lot of inner conflicts he needed to deal with. Perhaps he needed a vaction and counseling. Lying to the public was wrong. However, his actions could have been a desperate cry for help.
I do not know if I feel sorry for the reporter because by taking the job as a journalists you are saying that you agree with the code of ethics that one must follow. I do however feel disappointed in the New York times for continuing Blair's fabricated articles to be ran. The editor should have done a little investigating of his own and maybe even READ his own paper to figure out before others that his own staff could be ruining the credibility of his own paper.
I do not feel bad for the reporter. He should have stuck to the truth like journalists are supposed to do. I don't want to read a story out there by some journalist who is not being accurate in his information. That makes society come to false conclusions about a topic which could possibly affect some ones life which is not fair. It is not the journalists job to try and make a story look good, but it is their job to report the truth and if they can not stick by the truth then they have no business being in this profession.
I do not feel sorry for him. He knows what his duties are as a journalist and he has violated so many ethics with his lies. If somebody that high up, all the way at the New York Times level, knows what their responsibilities are and he clearly knew what he was doing. By resigning I think he was admitting he was wrong and wanted to leave the position before he was caught. It somebody wants to write fabricated, heartfelt pieces, they should write novels not newspaper articles!
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