JAYSON BLAIR, THE DISGRACED former journalist, was recently invited to speak at Washington & Lee University about journalism ethics.Blair is probably the most infamous plagiarizer and fabricator of journalism in recent memory (if not ever). He happens to live near the university, and currently serves as a life coach.
Is there any benefit in bringing Blair to a journalism forum to talk about ethics?
15 comments:
Yes, always best to learn from the mistakes of others
I don't think there's any benefit in having the biggest plagiarizer/fabricator speak about journalism ethics. What's the point when he doesn't even take them into consideration? The irony of it is funny.
Life coach? Is that a joke? It would be helpful to hear the egomaniac talk. It's like when parents point out to their young children a teenager vomiting in the gutter.
"See kids, you don't want to end up like that."
There is no benefit that can come from getting information on ethics from a man who broke every ethic's rule there was to journalism. What could he tell anyone? from his history how could we even tell that those thoughts are orginal? or is he going to be sharing ideas that were thoguht by some other individual. He did it before, what credit does he have that he changed?
Respectfully, I believe Blair's speaking to young journalist does have value in that the students can see firsthand the level of his disgrace Blair has suffered and hear directly from him what the effects of his decisions have had on his life. I doubt that after hearing him speak, anyone would knowingly follow his lead.
I think that he can talk about how he got caught and what lesson he learned from it.He can surely benefit a forum on ethics.
yea the only thing he can bring to the students is a living and breathing BAD EXAMPLE! I think Blair would be good for the students to know what NOT to do in journalism.
I guess it could be useful for the students to hear what he learned after getting caught.
Jayson Blair inevitably messed up his career. However he has been able to turn that around and now serves as a life coach. I agree with the previous comment, "we learn by others mistakes". If he is now a life coach he is already helping people with their mistakes. there is a benefit to bringing Blair to a journalist forum and that benefit is realize the potential impact of ones profession
The first tenet of journalism ethics is that journalism's obligation to the truth.Jayson Blair clearly violated that principle when he falsified multiple stories in the New York Times. It is contradictory and puzzling that he would speak at a conference that is about journalism ethics. How can he speak about truth?
While it may seem odd to invite such an infamous fabricator in the journalism business to speak at a university, I do believe he may be able to shed some light on what caused him to act as he did during the peak of his career. The stress to get the big story and be a top reporter can sometimes blind the ethical decisions of overzealous journalists. At the very least, it'd be interesting to hear what he thinks about his past actions.
Well, there is an episode of Law and Order based off of him, so I guess its ok if he's still around.
I don't think that he should be able to talk about journalism ethics when he violated the first element of journalism. Why would any prospective journalist want to listen to someone that violated a huge element of journalism?
He probably has a lot of experience with bad journalism. I think a lot of people will like to hear advice on what happens when you plagiarize and pretty much spiral in your career.
FELICIA TOPSALE SAYS................I would be interested in hearing what he has to say about all the plagerism and the lies he told when he was a journalist, but I would take any adice he gave me about how to be a good journalist with a grain of salt.
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