Who's the exact opposite of Jayson Blair, the New York Times reporter accused of inventing sources and quotes, plagiarizing and other sins? Well, how about Judith Miller? Where Blair is young and black and inexperienced, a rookie journalist whose job was largely to interview ordinary people, Miller is middle-aged and white and a veteranTimes star whose job it is to interact with the best and the brightest in science, academia and government.
But Blair and Miller have more in common than you might think. Both are in trouble for giving readers dubious information. While Miller's alleged improprieties are of a more subtle nature, and she comes into this rough patch with an estimable reputation built over the course of a long and distinguished career, her case reveals a great deal about the state of today's news media. What Miller did, and the fact that her brand of journalism is encouraged and rewarded by the powers that be, is precisely the kind of topic that the Times's leadership ought to air during its current semipublic glasnost phase.
In Blair's case, the only serious damage has been to the paper's image. Miller, on the other hand, risks playing with the kind of fire that starts or justifies wars, gets people killed and plays into the hands of government officials with partisan axes to grind.
Rest of article: Scoops and 'Truth' at the Times, The Nation, June 23, 2003 issue (posted June 5)
1930 G. E. Partridge in Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry X. 55 A conspicuous number who may justly be termed ‘sociopathic’. Ibid., We may use the term ‘sociopathy’ to mean anything deviated or pathological in social relations. Ibid. 56 We may exclude from the class of essential sociopaths those whose inadequacy is primarily related to physical weakness, fear, hypersensitiveness, shyness and self-blame. 1940 Hinsie & Schatzky Psychiatric Dict. 493/1 Sociopathy, this term has generally been used to designate an abnormal or pathological mental attitude toward the environment. 1962 L. Yablonsky Violent Gang (1967) xii. 216 The violent-gang structure recruits its participants from the more sociopathic youths living in the disorganized-slum community. 1968 Listener 26 Sept. 408/1 In America ‘psychopathy’ has been replaced by ‘sociopathy’. 1976 Smythies & Corbett Psychiatry iii. 29 Many sociopaths come from appalling backgrounds or from genetically afflicted families.
The above is from the OED. Boris' definition is more succinct:
A sociopath (as opposed to a psychopath) is someone who views other people as objects to be manipulated, not as persons. A user.
Think of the Clintons; perfect case-studies.
--Boris