he executive editor of The New York Times outlined a series of steps yesterday that he said the newspaper would take to prevent any recurrence of journalistic fraud, in reaction to revelations of extensive plagiarism and fabrication by a reporter.Posted on 05/12/2003 11:14:41 PM PDT by Timesink
he executive editor of The New York Times outlined a series of steps yesterday that he said the newspaper would take to prevent any recurrence of journalistic fraud, in reaction to revelations of extensive plagiarism and fabrication by a reporter.
In an e-mail message to the newspaper's staff yesterday, the editor, Howell Raines, announced that a committee would be formed to address what went wrong. He also said that two top editors would examine what repairs needed to be made to the paper's systems for managing expense accounts and keeping track of reporters' locations.
And he said he would be meeting individually with members of an investigative team that produced a four-page report in the Sunday paper detailing journalistic fraud by the reporter, Jayson Blair. Mr. Blair resigned on May 1 after the discovery that he had plagiarized a front-page story.
The report on Sunday described further damage he had done to the paper's reputation by making numerous factual errors and by representing that he had been reporting stories from a handful of towns and cities in other states when his phone records showed he was actually in New York.
In an earlier e-mail message sent to the staff yesterday, the publisher of The Times, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., along with Mr. Raines and the managing editor, Gerald M. Boyd, said: "In the case of Jayson Blair, our organizational safeguards and our individual responses were insufficient. Howell, Gerald and I accept the responsibility for that."
"We are resolved to do all that we can to learn from this tragedy and prevent any similar instances of journalistic fraud in the future," they wrote.
In his message, Mr. Raines said that the committee, which will report to the publisher, would be led by an assistant managing editor, Allan M. Siegal, and would include members from outside the newspaper. It will eventually present its conclusions to the staff of the paper.
"I believe the editing system that we have developed over the years is reliable in dealing with unintended errors, but clearly it has not made us fraud-proof," Mr. Raines wrote in his message.
Referring to the writers and editors who produced Sunday's front-page report, he said, "There is no question that their central finding of a lack of communication among desks and editors is on target and offers us a blueprint for corrective action."
"We are not going to let one person's aberrant behavior turn us into paranoid managers who start every conversation between editor and reporter on a presumption of dishonesty, but we are going to examine the system from every angle," Mr. Raines wrote.
As he did before starting in his current position in September 2001, Mr. Raines will meet with groups of staff members to learn from their insights.
Mr. Raines said he would ask Mr. Boyd to "focus his attention on our daily news report while these meetings are under way."
The investigations into and improvements of the paper's policies will be undertaken in a spirit of openness, Mr. Raines said. "We have nothing to hide and nothing to protect except this irreplaceable newspaper," he said.
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 Schadenfreude  |
Kunkel said he was "floored" by a lengthy Times story Sunday that detailed chronic plagiarism, fabrications and lying by Blair during his nearly four years with the newspaper. Blair, 27, who left the university without graduating, was a driven and talented student and journalist, Kunkel said, whose work did not arouse any suspicions among the faculty. In an interview, Kunkel said the news was "like a kidney punch," saying school officials were devastated that "one of our own would turn his back on every principle that we hold dear."***
Blair discussed it with Reid in a phone conversation the two had last week, after allegations of plagiarism surfaced but before the Times' story Sunday. "The first thing he said was 'I know a lot of people hate me. They're glad it happened and I gave them ammunition. I know they are happy about it,'" she said.
Kunkel said contrary to the Times report, Blair won't be able to return to Maryland to finish his degree. "You're talking about a serial plagiarist and fabulist," he said. "But I do hope he finds a way to finish his college education, because he's going to need it more than ever."***
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