Plagiarism vs. Ficiton

“Liars, Cheats and Thieves” was the title of our lecture Monday. Janet Cook, Steven Glass and Jayson Blair were a few the journalists mentioned. I had heard of their cases in the past, but had never really examined any of them. Jayson Blair’s most interested me.

While in class we watched a small clip of Jayson Blair’s interview with Katie Couric. Throughout the interview he was “coming clean” and telling viewers what he lied about and why he had been dishonest. Blair made up interviews, created quotes, and plagiarized at least 37 other stories.

Because I was interested in his story after class, I checked out the case in more detail and found the link to New York Times’ article entitled “Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception” written on May 11, 2003. You can read it at
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/national/11PAPE.html?ex=1367985600&en=d6f511319c259463&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND. Beware, it is lengthy, but it is filled with detailed information.

After class, I thought about the question our teacher had asked in class, “Which is worse, plagiarism or stories that are completely made up?” Several students in the class raised their hands and said fictional stories were worse. Their thoughts were that journalists who created stories disregarded the viewers trust and totally lied. I agree, fabricating stories is irresponsible and appalling, but I feel plagiarism is probably worse. Not only did those journalists lie by conveying the message that they wrote the material, but they also stole the work of someone’s. However, in Jayson Blair’s case, it does not matter which is worse; according to the New York Times he did both, a disgrace to an already struggling industry.