Negligence and Plagiarism: Separate or One in the Same
The article “Correcting the Record: Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception,” written by D. Barry et al, shows the chronicle of Jason Blair’s career at the New York Times. He was fabricating facts to make his reports look more interesting and plagiarizing other authors in his articles. There was a s imilar case with Brian Therevenot, who was misreporting about Hurricane Katrina aftermath. Blair and Therevont both demonstrated deception in their articles; however these cases are different and the reporters are not equally guilty for their behavior. Therevont misreported, using information that was not confirmed, but Blair was consciously inventing and plagiarizing information for several years while working for a respected newspaper.
Mr. Therevont was involved in negligence. His fiction was a result of broken communications in the New Orleans region right after the disaster happened and it was hard to confirm the information. He wrote Bodies Piled in Freezer at Convention Center article after interviewing victims and witnesses, whose words were mostly based on other people's reports. When it comes to retelling other witnesses, exaggerating and myth-making is a common thing that people do. In this case, journalists are wrong only partially, because they are depending on stories that were told by people who were in the middle of the action. Even government officials, like the city mayor and police chief were misinformed about the real situation. Mr. Therevont was unaware that he was incorrectly reporting things, and explained that in his next article “Myth-Making in New Orleans.”
But some reporter’s falsifications have other roots. Blair filled his articles with plagiarism and deception. When he was reporting about Iraqi veteran Michael Gardner II, Blair described the soldier’s story and Gardner’s family house, mother and father with details, but he didn’t even visit them. Later the reporter was suspected of gaining access to the photos of photographer Doug Mills, who was making pictures of the veteran’s parents, and article of another author, who was also covering that story. He was using that information without permission. Jason also invented conversations between him and Mr. Gardner’s II comrades, which he published with citations in the article.
Mr. Therevont and Mr. Blair are both guilty, but the Times reporter’s
