Publisher’s Note: The publisher has had no role in editing this essay, which is published as the writer submitted it with the intention of publication in BEACONS.
By Jazmin Brown
The main goal of this class is identifying what fabrication and plagiarism is. This class also discussed how to avoid journalistic sins and the importance of developing a code of ethics. Plagiarism is stealing someone work and claiming it as your own. Fabrication is reporting false information and quotes. At the beginning of the semester, one of the sources we looked at is “Why the emphasis on young, promising journalists who plagiarize or fabricate?” This article explains the importance of teaching young people how to avoid plagiarism. Explaining the ethical standards for journalists is one of the many solutions that can be implemented to reduce the amount of people in the field that feel the need to steal others works. The question that I asked myself while exploring the topic is “why is fabrication and plagiarism an issue people face?”
Currently, there is a lot of mistrust in news media. There are many politicians that promoted mistrust in popular news organizations. The republican party has push mistrust of the media, during Trump’s term, the most. This could add pressure on journalists. The discourse around what type of media is most reliable is harmful to the industry. The public is starting to put more faith in news sites that are run by people who have no journalism background. The reason for that is a belief that current media sources are bias and hide what does not fit their narrative. The reputation of the established news organizations can be recovered by gaining the trust of the public and making reforms to it.
One of the excuses that reoccurred from journalist who have fabricated stories is the pressure from there organizations. An example of this is the story of Jayson Blair. Jayson Blair had a reputation for being unreliable and fabricating his stories since the beginning of his career. When he was working for “Diamondback” at Maryland University, he would miss deadlines and underpay staff. When he worked for the Times, he continued to have bad work ethics. One of his most notable sins is when he stole the work from Marcarena Hernandez. Reading Hernandez’s article on the issue showed disappointment that her colleague would plagiarize and twist her story. Blair’s excuse for his behavior was he wanted to give the boss what they desired.
The Times could have avoided having their reputation damaged by having better background checks on Blair. If the staff at the time had looked at his university background, they would not have hired him. Blair was able to advance in his career because of his personality. Many people within his organization trusted Blair. For this reason, they did not see a reason to check if his sources were accurate. This is an example of the negative traits of newsroom culture. Editors may not feel the need to review their colleague’s work if they had worked for the organization for a long time. The organization needs to implement a strict policy to avoid more cases like Blair. Using a program that help find plagiarism cases could remedy the issue. Blair has proven he had learned from his mistakes when he returned to his university to teach journalism ethics.
Janet Cooke also used the excuse of feeling pressure from her organization. Cooke was fired from her job at the Washington Post because she fabricated a story about a heroin-addicted child. Unlike many other reporters who would try to hide their sin, she fully admitted to what she did. According to the Washington Post, “In Cooke's view, she did not invent "Jimmy" to win a Pulitzer or make a big splash; she was just desperate to get off The Post's Weekly staff, which she described as "the ghetto."”[1] When reading her fabricated article, I immediately became skeptical. It seemed impossible that she would find a family willing to admit to giving their son heroin to a reporter. Because of this, she weakened the trust of the Washington Post. A serious topic like this should have had a background check on its sources and location.
Stephen Glass also fabricated majority of the articles he worked on. Like Blair and Cooke, his reputation in the industry was destroyed because of this. Glass was an editor at “The New Republic” and wrote a story about a hacker who was offered a job at the company he hacked. Glass was able to escape a review of his article from his editors because of his credentials. He also created backups and false contacts to give legitimacy to his story. During his CNN interview, he did not appear remorseful for his actions.
Fact checking guidelines created by the organizations could have prevented these journalists from thinking it was acceptable to fabricate their work. The most important guideline should be an emphasis on accuracy. Journalists are the main source for the public to get information on what is going on in the world. Therefore, being discovered to have plagiarized should have a strong punishment. Despite this, there is no consistency in the punishment.
Faults were found in the fact checking system tested by David House.[2] The fact checking system is called iThenticate. House was a senior editor and reader advocate. House had the goal of solving the plagiarism within his organization. Unsurprisingly, when checking House’s work for plagiarism, the system found similarities in his previous work. I believe this is a positive result and shows the reliability of the system. With some improvement to the technology, this system could be used to quickly identify if something were plagiarized without the issue of bias editors.
Jonah Lehar was a writer at The New Yorker and a science journalist. His journalistic sin was fabricating quotes and self-plagiarism. He apologized and felt regret for doing it. Many people would not see the problem with self-plagiarism. If it is his original work, what is the issue? Only journalist seem to have a problem with it. The reason why self-plagiarism is controversial is because the journalism industry prides itself on providing the latest information. It is seen as unprofessional to reuse your material. Lehar’s only punishment for plagiarism is being socially ostracized. When Blair reflected on this case, he relates to not seeing originality as a priority in his past.
Ruth Shalit was a journalist who copied other writers’ materials and produced inaccurate information. Despite her apology and statements that she would never do it again, she did it repeatedly. Her good position within her company granted her leeway from her editors. Because of her crime of plagiarism, other journalist used it as an excuse to attack her based on her gender and race. Despite her history, she managed to get a job at the Atlantic. She did not learn a lesson from her past sins and embellished the article she wrote for that organization. This resulted in her being fired and labeled unreliable.
The examples provided can be used to reflect on the culture of the industry. The article, “Confronting the Culture”[3],explained the necessity for new codes of ethics, unbiased editors, and educate new journalist on the standards of the organization. These changes can lessen the pressure on journalists to have the fastest and most interesting story without being completely accurate. One of the main issues that needs to be tackled is teaching future journalist that plagiarism can be detrimental to their career and company they work for.
An example of pressuring journalist having a negative result is the story of Rick Bragg and Howell Raines. Bragg work as a reporter for the Times in 1994. Bragg fabricated his stories and used interns’ materials without crediting them. His reasoning for not giving credit to his interns is it is common practice in the industry. This is untrue. Because of the cases of Bragg and Blair, the executive editor was made to resign. The editor, Howell Raines, described the how he pushed himself and staff to work harder after the attacks on September 11. Raines believed the failure to prevent inaccuracies is because of the organization refusing to change the way it operates.
Trying to compete with other news organizations should not interfere with their responsibility to produce reliable articles. They also have a responsibility to let their staff know that plagiarism is not tolerated within the industry. Because of the case of Jack Kelley, USA Today developed a code of ethics to find a solution to the issue.
Jack Kelley worked for USA Today since it was founded. He had fabricated eight stories. One of his most famous crimes of plagiarism is a false claim he made about a woman who illegally entered Cuba. His false claim caused the woman to lose her job and status as an immigrant. USA Today documented all of Kelly’s cases of fabrication and created stricter rules about anonymous sources. The eleven-point guideline the organization created helps when figuring how to find solutions to promoting good journalism habits[4].
On usatoday.com, the first guideline was “Anonymous sources must be cited only as a last resort.” Anonymous sources could easily be used to fake quotes and create a narrative. The reason for this is because you do not need to claim sources. Editors and other members of the news organization should be able to have access to anonymous sources. This will give them the ability to make sure the event and the people involved with it are real. An editor should always be skeptical when reviewing an anonymous statement provided by an editor. If this were implemented, reporters like Glass, Cooke, and Kelly would not have been able to have their fictional stories released to the public. This does not mean a reporter would have to release all information about the sources. The reporter would need to tell the editor how to contact them at least.
Editors needs to be secure when reviewing a reporter’s work to make sure it is completely accurate. This can be done by having multiple editors assigned to review each article. Having multiple people in the editing process gives the ability to see other opinions on the quality of the paper. If the editor does have access to the anonymous source, check if the reporter has quoted them correctly. Another benefit to this is it enforces the standards of the journalism industry.
When formulating a code of ethics, reflecting on the stories of the of journalists who decided to go against the expectations of the job helps. There is a lack of clear guidelines on how to approach plagiarism. Some organizations have decided to hide the faults of their journalist. I agree with the statement from Craig Sliverman. He states, “If we in the press stonewall and hide behind vague public statements when ethical breaches happen within our ranks, then we embolden politicians and other public figures to do the same.”[5] This can be seen in the public’s mistrust in the government and news organizations. When information in an article is discovered to be false, politicians can use it to discredit any negative information that is released about them by the organization.
Having an ethics committee would help news organizations have a formulated way to address ethics violations. This committee would be responsible for educating staff on the organization’s policies. Sliverman discussed three steps and ethical committee can take. Those three steps are creating ethics committees, educate newsrooms, and implement random checks for plagiarism.
One method to educate newsrooms about the best journalism practices is setting up training sessions for new hires. Maybe different job fields requiring training for their staff before they can work with them. Explaining how the organization’s intolerance for of plagiarism and how what are the best methods to use when reporting. The most important lesson these training sessions would teach is accountability and how false reporting can negatively affect the public. Public discourse and conflicting information are an issue that journalists should not want to worsen. The term “fake news” being popularized in media discussion shows the urgency to teach young journalists to have integrity in their work.
Implementing random checks on reporter’s works could be difficult. The reason why this would be difficult because the current systems we must analyze an article are not completely accurate. Another reason why it could be difficult is the trusting relationship an editor may have with their reporter. Despite the possibility for online plagiarism detection systems detecting the work of the same person, it has the same possibility to detect the copying of another’s work. Another way random checks can be done is from the proposed ethics committee. Committee members, who have no connect to the reporters, would be given the responsibility.
Staying consistent with accuracy can become challenging when looking for the perfect story. Deadlines also add to the pressure of the journalist. Fabrication and plagiarism are enticing because it is an easily way to create the story you want. For example, before it was discovered Cooke’s story was made up, she was a candidate for a Pulitzer. She was almost rewarded for her lies. Many of the journalist we looked at were highly praised and beloved by those they worked with. They felt the need to create something eye catching and will continue to keep their relevancy. To remedy this need, the culture needs to prioritize truth over fame. An ethics committee can help with that.
Another solution to avoid journalistic sins is know your intentions for the article. One of the first things I learnt from my writing classes is to list out the main points of what you are going to create before formulating a narrative. If a journalist has can outline of the type of story they want to tell can, it would be a personal guideline to how they wanted to approach a subject.
News organizations see themselves as rivals to each other. Everyone wants to be the top sources of information. This can be seen in Raines frustration with the way the Times was run. Raines stated he wanted to push the organization out of complacency. Afterwards, he expressed regret for pushing his newsroom too far[6]. Competition between papers distract from the purpose of the journalism industry. Journalism is defined as “the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information.”[7] This should be the core value and motive for journalist. When training potential journalist, they should be taught it is their duty to present the public on the facts of society. It should be a fight to find the truth instead of a fight for ratings.
The pressure to compete with other news organizations come mostly from large news organizations. This is to be expected because large news organizations have more eyes watching them. Large news organizations usually have an establish history and are instantly granted credibility. An interesting thing pointed out by Norman P Lewis is “Newspapers confronted by plagiarism cases will retreat to a defensive position that protects established beliefs about the essential goodness and integrity of the newsgathering process and sees wrongdoing as an individual-level problem.”[8] To summarize this statement, large newspapers are more likely hide plagiarism cases to keep their good reputation. Knowing this, it could add to the mistrust the public may hold towards large news organizations. It is better is address when a reporter has plagiarized or fabricated because it lets people know they do not tolerate misinformation in their industry.
The concept of good journalist versus a bad journalist is a complex one. The examples of journalist proved in the class were not know as bad journalist. Excluding Blair, most of the coworkers of these journalist expressed shock and disappointment in their violations. A bad journalist can also be a good writer. I enjoyed Cooke’s article on the heroin addicted child. Her vivid description of the scene was engaging. An example of her vivid description is “the calm and self-assured little man recedes. The jittery and ill-behaved boy takes over as he begins going into withdrawal. He is twisting uncomfortably in his chair one minute, irritatingly raising and lowering a vinyl window blind the next.”[9] If she were provided with a real story, judging from this article, she would have had the potential to create a more realistic imagine of the issue. Despite her writing skills, she would still be a bad journalist because she fabricated her story and did not follow journalism ethics.
A good journalist makes sure to only produce original and accurate information. This takes more work than fabricating a story because of the research that is involved. When I had to find a story for DoNorth magazine, it was challenging to create a narrative because I was new to the situation. I had to ask the interviewee multiple questions over a long period of time and research the history of their business. This is what journalist should be taught to do. It can be frustrating when you do not have a clear story in mind when you search for a story. This is like the case of Michael Finkel.
Finkel wrote a story about a boy from Nimbougou who was sold as a slave to a coco farm. The reason why he felt compelled to make up this story because he wanted to write a compelling story. He had traveled to Africa and had met real slave boys but did not find the story her was looking for. He believed his story accurately descripted the situation that was happening during that time. This false narrative could have damaged the real issue of child slaves and people may become more skeptical next time they hear about one. It is important to avoid the temptation to make up a story because it can cause people to distrust article on serious issues in the future.
Plagiarism and fabrication are more excusable if it is a real mistake may by someone new to the field. An example this is the case of Kim Na. Kim Na was an 18-year-old journalism student who worked for the WSU newspaper. She accidental copied a poorly translated paragraph from another paper. After this insistent, the paper released a statement addressing the issue. She took the information from the site because she thought it was a proper source. A student newspaper accidently copying another person’s work can be excused because those working on it would be inexperienced and unaware of journalism ethics. The people in charge of the pages should use this situation as an example of how the pity falls of journalism. The journalism students should have been educated on pass journalist who have plagiarized to know how to avoid it in the future.
Would Kim Na be considered a bad journalist? The answer would be no. Her form of plagiarism was not meant to deceive anyone and to instantly admitted her mistake. The punishment for plagiarism should be based on intent. It should also be based on the type of organization the reporter was apart of. As we go through the history of journalist who are considered bad, there reasonings become difficult to understand. The pressure should have been a motivator to find the right sources and narrative. Instead, it motivated people to lie and copy information.
Lewis believes there are three levels of severity in plagiarism. These three levels are limited, substantial, and serial[10]. Limited is copying two paragraphs or less. Substantial is stealing paragraphs from multiple stories. Serial is stealing tons of information from various stories. This can help when figuring out the level of punishment someone should receive for plagiarism.
The case of Fareed Zakaria can be defined as a substantial form of plagiarism. He was CNN host. He plagiarized by “patch writing”[11]. This means he took pieces from various sources with giving credit. Apologies was sent out to the public but Zakaria kept his job. Zakaria should not have been able to keep his job. This is an example of the inconsistent on how severely cases of plagiarism are addressed. It can be assumed that the higher your position within the organization, the more likely you will be excused.
To avoid favoritism from editors, they need to become more suspicious. A trait of a good journalist is being curious and skeptical. The Counter-Plagiarism Handbook advises editors to be wary of those who submit their work last minute.[12]Having a critical mindset like this will encourage the editor too review an article thoroughly. Those working towards joining the joining the journalism field should be trained to have an inquisitive mind when dealing with there work. If they learn to go into journalism with the mentally of skeptical, they may find the need for prove with whatever story they decide to make.
When reading an online resource, it can be difficult to tell whether you can rely on the information provided. A good way to tell if a source of information is reliable or not comparisons. What are other news sites saying about the issue? Are there sources sited for this calm? A good journalist should also know how to read through other people’s articles and reflect on there own writing style.
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/05/09/janet-cookes-untold-story/23151d68-3abd-449a-a053-d72793939d85/
[2]file:///C:/Users/Jaz/Desktop/homework/Topics%20in%20Journalism/The%20Cost%20of%20Credibility%3B%20New%20plagiarism%20check%20raises%20concerns.pdf
[3] https://web.csulb.edu/~jaubele/confrontingtheculture.pdf
[4] https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/2004-04-22-report-five_x.htm
[5] https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2012/journalisms-summer-of-sin-calls-for-leadership-transparency/
[6] https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2003/07/12/raines-says-he-was-asked-to-resign-at-ny-times/1a3d4396-1a37-4cb9-b855-8737e7302796/
[7] https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/
[8] https://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/handle/1903/6803/umi-umd-4289.pdf;sequence=1
[9] https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/09/28/jimmys-world/605f237a-7330-4a69-8433-b6da4c519120/
[10] https://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/handle/1903/6803/umi-umd-4289.pdf;sequence=1
[11] https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/journalism_has_a_plagiarism_pr.php
[12] https://archives.cjr.org/behind_the_news/the_counterplagiarism_handbook.php
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