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 Schadenfreude  |
Posted on 05/13/2003 7:40:29 AM PDT by syriacus
NEW YORK TIMES "tiefpunkt in 152 years newspaper history"
A fraud scandal shakes one of the angesehendsten newspapers of the world. A 27-jaehriger reporter the "New York Times" is to have invented systematically reports. Now its colleagues investigate, in order to clear the possible falsifications up. Also the readers are to help.
New York - such a thing did not give it in the history of the venerable of New Yorker sheets yet: The title page of its sunday edition (edition 1.7 million) opens the editorship with a detailed history in own thing, which pulls itself then over several sides. In painful lines a search team of the newspaper reports of the results of an extensive investigation. A young "Times" reporter is to have floated, obviously from the ambition, to have falsified or directly invent over months stories. Neither to department leaders, nor editors-in-chief the Mach works had been noticeable in time, only gradually colleagues distrustful had become. In a Editorial the editorship apologizes with its readers.
The journalistic monument wankt: The affair is so unpleasantly, their clearing-up them so important to the Zeitungsmachern that they ask the readers for assistance. Under the E-Mail address "retrace@nytimes.com" they are to send to referring to articles, which the 27-jaehrige Times editor Jayson Blair could have invented completely or in parts. The editorship separated on 1 May from the reporter.
In the process of four years Blair, whose work among colleagues was considered as particularly "fruitfully", had written more than 600 articles, which stand in the meantime all on the test stand. Since past October Blair was used country-wide for reports. In 36 of 73 articles, which it wrote since then, colleagues encountered those rough discrepancies or discovered long passages, consisted of pure fiction. The reporter had been partial not at all at the places, over which he wrote, emotions of alleged interview partners had invented, or simply from other newspapers had copied.
The "Times" states several reasons, why the errors were noticeable not in former times. Thus it gave communication problems among superiors, only few the concerning about Blairs articles would have weighted and the reporters it besides expressed well understood to smear its traces.
Uncovering the obviously systematic swindle was the result of a with the utmost care internal investigation of the editorship, which is still long not final, but now already to one in history the "New York Times" unique confession leads: Blair became the experienced cheat, debited to the honour of the newspaper. The journalistic basic principle of the "Times" consists of it investigating almost all articles, which are located in an expenditure, even. But Blair hurt the most important basic principle of the journalism - to be obligated the truth. "its act tools were its Handy and its laptop, with which it could mask its true places of residence", writes the newspaper.
Blairs service as one of 375 editors of the sheet was comparatively short, but the arranged damage for the call of the newspaper and its coworker also in the next weeks, months or years not yet flew to be, commentates the sheet. It waived, deplores "the confidence basis between readers and the newspaper" Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman the New York Times company.
The editorship tries now to uncover and - publicly - correct all errors Jaysons. A team from five editors, supported of numerous Rechercheuren, tests articles for articles. Thus in the current week final expenditure chronologically one describes, which error is provable Blairs so far. On 13 sides, which can be called up and printed out in the InterNet, its provisional sin register is listed.
Times it maintained to have attended or give as an eye-witness of a court hearing in Virginia, in Maryland a police head to have visited or in west Virginia before the house of a soldier tendencies have caught. In Bethesda it "produced" even an article, which describes a suffering of wounded soldiers in the Iraq war. Jayson had asked a wounded Corporal at the telephone, had invented then however discussion passages and had not at all personally visited the soldier, as he suggested in his text. It undertook only a "virtual journey" summarized now its editorship. Like that scenes are which it from Bethesda described "from the first word" been to untrue, because it gave as an eye-witness to have locally been. But bitter-laconically the "New York Times" rectifies now: "it was not it".
The "Times" is the usually-honoured sheet in the USA alone in the past year heimste the editorship of sieved Pulitzer prices in. Now a second internal investigation is to be initiated: How something similar can be excluded in the future, so that such "tiefpunkt" does not repeat itself in the 152-jaehrigen history of the newspaper.
My compliments to Der Spiegel for a nice choice of words (in translation, anyway)
The journalistic monument wankt
I thought that was funny, too....LOL.
The word "sin" is accurate, too.
What Blair did, and top honchos at the NY Times did, was sinful.
Lies piled on top of lies. Plagiarism piled on top of plagiarism.
I love Babelfish. I couldn't have put it better in a million years.
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Schadenfreude |
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