Plagiarism Jayson Blair and the NYTimes

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PlagiarismJayson Blair and the NY-Times

• ENG 19/301
• Ethics in Technology
• Winter 2004, Jan 21
• Gitansh Chadha, Eric Chang, Fyza Parviz, Darcie
  Reynolds

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Agenda

• Plagiarism What is it?
• Who is Jayson Blair?
• Issues and Stakeholders
• Actions and Perspectives
• Summary
• Appendix

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Plagiarism What is it?
Plagiarize \'pla-je-,riz also j - -\ vb -rized
-rizing vt plagiary to steal and pass off
(the ideas or words of another) as one's own
use (a created production) without crediting the
source vi to commit literary theft present as
new and original an idea or product derived from
an existing source - plagiarizer n FROM
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary 9th ed,
(Springfield, Ma Merriam 1981, p. 870).
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• A study by The Center for Academic Integrity
  found that almost 80 of college students admit
  to cheating at least once.
• According to a survey by the Psychological
  Record 36 of undergraduates have admitted to
  plagiarizing written material.
• A poll conducted by US News and World Reports
  found that 90 of students believe that cheaters
  are either never caught or have never been
  appropriately disciplined.
• The State of Americans This Generation and the
  Next (Free Press, July 1996) states that 58.3 of
  high school students let someone else copy their
  work in 1969, and 97.5 did so in 1989.

www.plagiarism.org
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The problem with statistics What is the
definition of plagiarism?

• Downloading a paper on ezwrite.com
• Professor lecturing on ideas without citation
• Collaboration between students
• Neutralizing

Cheating - SCU Ethics Site
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What can be done?

• In order to maintain academic integrity
• Establish a set definition of plagiarism
• Discussion
• Enforcement

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According to the Engineering Honor Code All
students taking courses in the School of
Engineering agree, individually and collectively,
that they will not give or receive unpermitted
aid in examinations or other course work that is
to be used by the instructor as a basis for
grading.
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Who is Jayson Blair?

• University of Maryland never graduated
• Boston Globe internship
• In 1998 joined The New York Times
• intern first, then an intermediate reporter, and
  then, in 2001, a full reporter with all the
  privileges.

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Acts of plagiarism

• Faked an interview in West Virginia with George
  Lynch, the father of the rescued POW Jessica
  Lynch
• One of the eight reporters sent to Washington,
  D.C., to cover the Maryland sniper shootings
• Assigned to visit the mother of a missing U.S.
  servicewoman in Texas
• -he had not gone to Texas
• -lifted details from an April 18 San Antonio
  Express News

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How he got Caught

• San Antonio Express-News complained that Blair
  had plagiarized its account of a Texas woman
  whose son was later found dead in Iraq
• Between late October 2002 and late April 2003,
  Blair claimed to have filed stories from 20
  cities in six states
• 36 fabrications in Blair's last 73 stories

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Consequences

• Top New York Times editors quit
• Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing
  Editor Gerald Boyd
• Sold his story to a Los Angeles-based publishing
  house
• "Burning Down My Master's House My Life at the
  New York Times." (March 6 2004)
• Blair's advance was well into six figures

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Issues and Stakeholders

• Professional issues
• Legal/Policy issues
• Ethical Issues
• Stakeholders

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Professional Issues?

• Plagiarism resulted in the resignation of the
  writer as well as the editors of New York Times.
• Resulted in bad publicity of NYT.

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Legal/Policy Issues?

• The rights of the person, who had written the
  original material, were violated.
• The accuracy and truthfulness of the accounts
  written about in NYT were questioned.
• Copywriting laws were broken.

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Ethical Issues?

• Every writers right to owning his/her own work
  was infringed.
• The chance of the plagiarized text getting more
  praise and recognition than the original text.

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Stakeholders?

• The original writer.
• New York Times
• Jason Blair
• The editors of New York Times
• The people who read NYT

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Actions and Perspectives

• Possible Actions
• Jayson Blair plagiarizes material
• NYT management looks the other way
• Both Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd resign
• NYT identifies Rick Bragg in internal review

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Ethical Perspectives

• Utilitarianism A few directly suffer (first
  writer, editors). Most would benefit by enjoying
  a good story in wide circulation. Overall benefit
  outweighs the harm
• Rights Original writers rights violated
  (dignity, right to creative integrity). Mgmt
  violates a negative right, in not performing
  their duty to enforce citing other journalistic
  sources
• Kantian Everyone is free to write as they
  choose, per the Golden Rule, as long as the
  writers dont mind (Reversability). Yet, using
  race does not adhere to everyone equal to
  everyone else

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Ethical Perspectives (ctd)

• Fairness/Justice Consistency in how people are
  treated. All other papers copy from the
  NY-Times. Why cant they?1 But breaks with race
• Common Good Shared pursuit of common goals and
  values. If the majority mentally rejects
  plagiarism, individual goals should reflect
• Virtue Focus on attitudes that further human
  potential honesty, trustworthiness, integrity.
  Plagiarism does not fall in this list

1 Sympathy for the New York Times. Often
Plagiarized. Seldom Plagiarizing Michael
Kinsley, May 21, 2003 http//slate.msn.com/id/2083
377/
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Summary

• NYT Management should not look the other way
• 3 For (Rights, Common Good, Virtue)
• 1 Against (Utilitarianism)
• 2 Tie (Kantian, Justice)
• Plus Rights tends to trump all others

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Appendix
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Ethical Perspectives

• Utilitarianism Most stakeholders may not really
  care what happens here. Many employees were sad,
  but quite a few were optimistic
• Rights Editors had a right to exercise their
  personal freedom of conscience, integrity.
  Resigning perhaps cleared their conscience?
• Kantian Would others expect the editors to
  resign? Would another action be sufficient
  (public apology, corrective action)?

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Ethical Perspectives

• Fairness/Justice Consistency with how people
  are treated. Since Blair and Rick Bragg were
  forced to resign, Raines and Boyd should too
• Common Good If most stakeholders feel managers
  should be held responsible for their firm, then
  Raines/Boyd should be accountable
• Virtue By focusing on proper traits and
  attitudes, resigning validates moral virtues that
  advance human potential

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Summary 2

• Raines and Boyd should resign
• 3 For (Rights, Justice, Virtue)
• 1 Against (Utilitarianism)
• 2 Tie (Kantian, Common Good)
• Rights tends to trump all others