MEDIA ETHICS
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In the rush to get out news, to beat competition, to have a "scoop", media now often do something that is increasing almost daily: plagiarism. There are many other unethical forms in the media, of course, especially around election time when articles about or against a candidate may well mention life styles among other untrue or semi-true facts. At the turn of the century there was, with William Randolph Hearst at its vanguard, a whole system of newspapers called "yellow journalism" which printed half-truths, innuendos and outright lies against which some people simply did not have the will or the money to defend themselves. Hearst himself often boasted that it was he and his newspapers that brought on the Spanish-American War, which freed Cuba and Puerto Rico and the Philippines from Spanish rule. This past year, magazines and newspapers have written many reports about the plagiarism of Stephen Ambrose, a well-respected historian and teacher, who was found to have plagiarized entire sections of his best-selling book. The same thing happened to the dean of a law school in California, whose book was found to have been plagiarized largely. Both authors claimed that they properly cited (or somehow, the citations were edited out) their sources. Finding good examples in the media today is not guesswork. It happens. For example, the Harvard Business School Press has filed a copyright infringement suit against a Decatur, GA outfit, called Business B
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rnal any more or less ethical than its competitors? What was the purpose of making a big deal out of the story that others felt was not really worthwhile to publish? The Journal, known as a conservative publication, might well have published it for political reasons. Certainly few of its readers are Afro-Americans, so there would be no backlash from its readers about publishing.
The New York Times has the slogan "All the news that's fit to print." But, they obviously felt that King's plagiarism (freely acknowledged by the King family) was not fit to print. Maybe the journal, as well as many other media, decides when the time is ripe, maybe when there is an otherwise slow news day, to bring out something that seems to have been suppressed by consensus. However, this was not make-believe. It was a fact. "The column even identified the smoking gun- the dissertation of fellow Boston University Student Jack Boozer, from whom King lifted large passages verbatim" (Babington 9)
It seems the story had been making the "cocktail circuit" rounds for some time. As a matter of fact, the first story was published in a London journal, the Sunday Telegraph, with a circulation of some 585,000. The editor who Okayed publication said h
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Deb Schlussel, Luther King, Street Journal, Review Harvard, York Times, Stephen Ambrose, Boozer King, Dr King, MEDIA ETHICS, Randolph Hearst, street journal, dr king, wall street journal, wall street, business school press, school press, martin luther, luther king, 1991 pp, boston university, found plagiarized, martin luther king, harvard business school, business school,
Approximate Word count = 1311
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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