Journalism and the Responsibility to Conscience

For the last class, the group gave a great and well-thought-out presentation in regards to journalism and the responsibility to conscience. We also had a reading assignment out of The Elements of Journalism, which is where I want to focus this blog post.

Chapter ten of Elements talks about the October 2002 snıper shootıngs and the work of a young reporter for the New York Tımes named Jayson Blaır. Blaır was a promısıng young reporter...but was caught up ın a web of lies and contradictions. Blair was offered an extensive internship and was believed to have graduated college. this was not, however, the case. He was lying to get the job.

Blair began to write good stories, especially for the sniper case. however, these stories were fabricated and copied. He was using sources that were made up. Blair was eventually caught, and resigned from his position....disgraces and without a job. He is not a "life coach," and his given numerous talks and forums on his lessons learned from what happened. I watched one of these forums and was very interested in what he had to say. He says it is an "old wound" for both him and the journalism world. He believes that we need to do all we can do restore power and peace to the world of journalism. He seems to want to truly aid journalism students and guide them to help them avoid his same mistakes. Here is the video I watched: follow this LINK:

youtube.com/watch?v=kFePfsBlocA&feature=related

Here are just a few of the problems Blair had with his career in journalism, all found on this LINK:
wikipedia.org/wiki/jaysonblair

he made up a story about a shooting suspect getting ready to confess to police that everyone knew was untrue.

he made up a source when reporting on the sniper shootings.

he claimed to be in washington when he was not.

The story of Blair was, for me, an inspiration to be a better journalism. We each have a conscious and we know what is right and wrong. The book talks a lot about honest and using personal judgement, and I agree with everything that they say. We know how to be good journalists, and have the obligation to the public to fulfill that duty. For me, when I am writing my news stories for KBYU and for our news show, it is so easy to just copy and paste facts, change names of friends and make a story up, or use a bit of information that i didn't get permission to use. It is easy, and it is done all too often.

I have a personal story I would like to conclude this post with. A few weeks ago I was filming a story for KBYU on a cancer 5k race for a man fighting cancer. I found out after I got home that my microphone didn't work, and my interview with a runner who had just finished the race didn't work. I was devastated. I could not recreate the event, and knew that my news director would be angry if I didn't have that interview. I talked to my sister about it. She decided that she would have her roommate dress up like a runner and go stand over on the coarse and we would film the interview again. I was so happy! My problems were solved. However, a few minutes before we began the interview, we all started feeling bad. We knew we were lying, and felt horrible. We decided that we wouldn't not go through with the interview. My news director was not angry, and I felt honest. My conscience saved me.

I am grateful that I have the conscience needed to be a good journalist and not rely on lies and deception to be successful.