In seismology terms, The New York Times scandal involving a 27-year-old reporter registers at least 9. The dictionary says 8.5 on the Richter Scale, the earthquake measure of magnitude, is “very devastating.”
With revelations that Times reporter Jayson Blair often plagiarized and fabricated information, newsrooms around the country are asking questions about how they do things.
First, the Blair case: The New York Times, the High Lord of Journalism Everywhere, confessed in an extraordinary (14,000 words) account (May 11) that one of its reporters had falsified information in major national news stories. Talk about airing dirty laundry!
A Times’ investigation revealed that at least 36 of 73 articles examined had problems of deception. Spot checks of more than 600 other articles by Blair in his nearly four years at The Times indicated similar problems. Blair no longer works at The Times.
Many of the 650 subscribers to the New York Times News Service scrambled to see how they had been stigmatized.
The Sacramento Bee published five stories by Blair, two of which The Times challenged. One of five Blair articles published by The Detroit Free Press during the period examined was found to have problems. The San Diego Union-Tribune and Akron Beacon Journal each used three stories cited by The Times but also were concerned about how much information from the reporter had been inserted into other stories.
The list could go on. At The Boston Globe, where Blair earlier had been an intern and free-lancer, an investigation suggested a pattern of falsification in the 85 articles he wrote for that newspaper.
The Gazette does not subscribe to the Times News Service, and none of Blair’s stories appeared in The Gazette. But that doesn’t mean the newspaper is or should be blas.
The Gazette is asking questions similar to those being asked elsewhere: How could this happen? Could it happen here?
The answer to the second question is easy: Yes, though chances of a scandal of The Times magnitude are unlikely.
For one thing, The Times, the gold standard of journalism, influences journalism throughout the world. Its reporting staff of about 375 dwarfs that of most other newspapers, including The Gazette’s reporting staff of about 35.
Newspapers the size of The Gazette are relatively closer to their readers compared to their metropolitan counterparts. And local readers aren’t bashful about voicing complaints.
Staffers are instructed to listen, though, as many readers can attest, listening doesn’t necessarily result in agreement. Fabrication or plagiarism can be confused with perception or perspective, and no two persons–reporters included–interpret things exactly alike.
Executive Editor Mark Bowden can recall only one incident of plagiarism in his 13 years as a Gazette editor. The case involved failure to properly attribute information. The reporter was disciplined.
Bowden doesn’t mention that record to be boastful. In a memo to newsroom staffers May 15, he wrote, “Plagiarism, deception and carelessness: It can happen at the New York Times, and most assuredly can happen at The Gazette, and the nation’s other 1,400 daily newspapers.”
The Times affair raises many issues. One involves race since Blair is African-American. Was he favored because of his race? Probably. But journalistic deception is an equal opportunity undertaking. Just ask Stephen Glass or Mike Barnicle.
Another issue involves different guises of deception. The Blair unmasking warns journalists to be wary of unnamed sources. It reminds journalists to credit information gleaned from other newsgathering sources. It reminds journalists that when they use non-local datelines–that is, the name of a location placed at the beginning of an article–they are telling the reader that the reporter physically is or was there.
Yet another troubling aspect of all this is the notion that some readers think it’s hopeless to complain because news media never get anything right anyway. Reader indifference may be the news media’s worst nemesis.
What’s the answer? There is no single answer, not even an ombudsman, an idea up to now resolutely resisted by The Times. For any organization to prosper, a certain level of trust must exist among colleagues as well as with the public.
Detecting Deception
Events similar to the fraudulent reporting of former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair can happen anywhere and in any organization. Recently the University of Iowa acquired a site license to assist faculty in identifying student plagiarism. The service is called “turnitin” (http://turnitin.com).
